Michigan State Board of Education members and staff from the Michigan Department of Education discuss new health education standards at a meeting on Nov. 13, 2025. Screenshot.

LANSING — After nearly three hours of public comment, the Michigan State Board of Education voted along party lines Thursday, 6-2, to pass updated health education and sex ed guidelines that include recommendations to teach students about LGBTQ+ identities.

“I am proud of what we just did,” said Pamela Pugh, the board’s president. “We made safer spaces for students, all students.”

The debate generally boiled down to those in support of the new guidelines advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ students in public school curricula, while those opposed cited questions of parental rights and religious freedoms.

The state’s guidelines had not been updated since 2007, and the newly voted-in standards include guidance on coverage of sexual orientation, gender identity, consent and safe sex practices, which previously had not been a part of the curriculum. “We are not pushing anything,” said board member Tiffany Tilley. “We are doing our jobs, though, which is making sure that some very old standards and guidelines are being updated today.”

Multiple current and former Michigan public school students, many themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community, spoke about how they felt excluded from school curricula, especially sex ed lessons, when people who shared their identities were not discussed. Over 100 residents attended the meeting to give public comment, leading the board to shorten each comment from three minutes to one.

The standards maintained, in accordance with state law, requirements for parental notification and options to opt-out of sex ed courses, which staff members present from the Department of Education repeatedly emphasized.

“I argue today we have found that many people believe that parental rights should be taken away,” said Nikki Snyder, one of the Republican members of the board who voted against the changes.

“A lot of people talk about all parents have rights. Their children have rights. Not just the people who opposed the proposal. I am a parent. I’ve got rights,” said board member Marshall Bullock. “Because parental rights come with a responsibility.”

Snyder repeatedly called presenters from the Michigan Department of Education liars — which led interim superintendent Sue Carnell to interrupt her and call for her to respect the staff, though Snyder repeatedly interjected into questions from other board members. “There is a Board of Education massive overstep that is happening,” she said.

“It is a true grooming going on,” said the other Republican on the board, Tom McMillin, utilizing an oft-used trope to falsely assert that members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies are sexual predators. “You said that people at this table were groomers and intentional groomers,” Pugh responded. “You need to retract that. Those are dangerous words and you need to be careful what you say at this table.”

Presenters from the Department of Education also noted that public comment outside of meetings was largely split between those in favor and those opposed to the guidelines.

Of 1,388 formal surveys received, 924 opposed the update while 250 supported it. Outside of the actual formal survey system, the Department of Education received over 2,000 emails on the issue during the 30-day public comment period — 896 opposed and over 1,100 in favor.

“This is not fringe, this is the mainstream of Michigan education,” Taryn Gal, executive director of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, said during the meeting. “The people responsible for educating your students support the standards because they are grounded in evidence, aligned with national best practices and designed to meet the real needs of students today.”

“What about when the science is corrupted, right?” countered pastor Danny Soria, one of the nearly 50 pastors that signed a letter to the board opposing the new standards. “We find ourselves in biblical times at critical crossroads. We bear the profound responsibility to make wise and morally sound decisions. Those choices must be guided, not by a distorted or perverse moral compass, but by a biblical and constitutional perspective, one that holds the rule of law.”

“The only thing that matters is the parents,” said John Grossenbacher, who submitted a petition signed by over 1,600 parents in opposition to the standards. “They are against this.”

Three parent organizations submitted formal letters of support to the Board — The Michigan Parent Teacher Association, Parent Action for Healthy Kids and Red Wine & Blue Michigan.