LANSING, MI – Michigan’s top school board green-lit new state health education guidelines on Thursday after a lengthy show of support and continued opposition from conservatives over the framework’s widened sex ed content about gender and LGBTQ+ identities.

Details about the guidelines were initially shared in September with the State Board of Education amid the Michigan Department of Education’s public input period.

School leaders have said the standards, which have not been updated since 2007, are not meant to require specific health instruction in classrooms. Instead, officials said it’s supposed to support local districts while also enshrining parents’ right to opt their children out of sex education as already mandated in state statute.

“Sex education is not new in Michigan.

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