Though still pending approval, the K to 10 draft curriculum guide (CG) of the Department of Education (DepEd) has made waves for including same-sex unions and same-sex marriage among the topics included in the revised Araling Panlipunan (AP) or Social Studies curriculum for Grade 10.
Here, in particular, junior high school students are to be taught about: same-sex marriage versus same-sex union, gender issues (e.g. gender wage gap), and hate crime and discrimination in different settings.
News about this actually initially broke at The Mangahas Interviews, where DepEd spokesperson Undersecretary Michael Poa mentioned this, along with the proposed inclusion in the CG of contemporary issues such as those on the West Philippine Sea. This is to guide students on concepts that they hear on the news and in their surroundings.
And yet while the draft CG has yet to be finalized, self-proclaimed “Christians” with extremist traditional views already reacted. For instance, preacher cum politician CIBAC Party-List Rep. Bro. Eddie Villanueva slammed DepEd for its “inclusion and promotion” of LGBTQIA-related issues in the CG.
But the DepEd eventually released a statement stressing that: 1) the LGBTQIA concepts have already been discussed among students in the past 10 years, with “the topic on same-sex unions has been in the curriculum since 2013”; and 2) DepEd merely “seeks to provide learners with a broader understanding of gender-based issues, encourage respect within the community, and promote inclusivity.”
