A former sex educator sounds the alarm about the nonprofit that has marketed itself towards minors. This nonprofit also boasts of having the second-largest LGBT library in Texas.
Monica Cline was disgusted by her two visits to Out Youth Austin in the late-1990s. She worked as a sex educator and HIV prevention specialist in the 1990s.
In her career, Cline focused on homeless youth and LGBT communities in Austin. She worked for allgo, the Austin Latina/Latino Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Organization. “Once I was hired, they said I needed to learn how to teach sex education to children,” she said. To get this training, she went across the street where the director of sex education at Planned Parenthood Greater Austin mentored her.
“I remember that my supervisor worked closely with those youth [that] tended to prostitute themselves, and especially with homosexual relationships,” she said. “Some of them could be in their early 20s, but these were minor children.” As part of her training, Cline was told that there are parents who will not tolerate their children being homosexual. This then leads to these children leaving home and becoming homeless. “This ideology continues to say that these children then have to resort to prostitution,” Cline said. “A lot of times, it’s homosexual relationships that they’re having.”
What disturbed Cline was that she found the sex education system at the time wasn’t trying to rescue these minors from this dangerous and destructive lifestyle. Instead, those in the field provided these minors with free condoms, lubricants, and access to testing. She said this attitude permeates the sex education ideology to this day. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t agree with it. But I’ll admit I wasn’t involved in doing anything to stop it either.”
It was through her work that Cline encountered Out Youth Austin in the late 1990s. She went to the nonprofit at her supervisor’s beckoning. The kids there were not homeless, so Cline guessed their parents had supported their belief they were homosexual or even let them participate in gender-bending.
She went to an OYA club to meet with the outreach workers. “When I walked in, the first thing that they had, that greeted the kids, were two large glass bowls. The first bowl was filled with condoms, the second bowl was filled with lubrication, and there was a catalog of Good Vibrations next to those bowls,” Cline said. She said that back then, Good Vibrations was a catalog of sex toys. “The kids literally would go there after school, weekends, to socialize [and] to be mentored by gay adults.”
This bothered Cline. “I can’t say if there w[ere] relationships necessarily with those mentors and kids. But it was very apparent, obviously, that the children were receiving in-depth, comprehensive sex education,” she said. “It was very sexual. They were being taught about how to use sex toys in their relationships. It was very pro-expression of their sexuality and high-risk behaviors.”
Monica Cline worked as a sex educator.
Texas Scorecard asked Cline about OYA’s confidentiality agreements. “The suspicion is that it’s really meant to keep the parent out of the picture,” she replied. “That’s the whole point.” Cline learned this when she underwent training from Planned Parenthood on Title 10. “They started to tell me, at pretty much every training as we talked about client counseling skills and confidentiality, that parents are a barrier to service. That’s an exact quote from the Planned Parenthood clinicians,” she said. “They do not want parents involved because parents will naturally protect their children.”
Texas Scorecard asked Planned Parenthood for comment. They did not respond.
This pattern of secrecy has recently become more glaring. On July 15, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a ban on schools requiring parents to be notified if their children identify as transgender. This outraged entrepreneur Elon Musk. He posted that because of this law, his companies, SpaceX and social media platform X, would be moving their headquarters to Texas. “This is the final straw.”
As for OYA, two visits were enough for Cline. “I was never comfortable, really, engaging in that kind of education with young children,” she said. “I just stuck to my own job of working with adult women.”
Texas Scorecard asked OYA multiple times for comment. They chose not to reply.
Books
Sexualization through school library books became another flashpoint in the culture war. Parents nationwide became outraged at the pornographic and pro-LGBT books available at their local government schools. The problem was found in the Lone Star State too. East Texas parent Christin Bentley fought hard to get state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing a process for parents to have such “filthy books” removed. As of now, that law is being fought out in federal courts.
The nonprofit Out Youth Austin has a library too, and one of the “filthy books” on Bentley’s list was found in OYA’s Jerry R. Strickland Memorial Library. In fact, OYA boasted they have “the second largest collection of LGBTQIA+ literature and media in the state of Texas.” The “filthy” book in question is a graphic novel titled “Fun Home.” Written by Alison Bechdel, this book is about a lesbian college student who discovers her dad is homosexual.
No other books from Bentley’s list were found in the OYA library’s catalog, but that did not mean there weren’t any books that might have raised questions. One is “Teach the Torches to Burn: A Romeo & Juliet Remix.” Written by Caleb Roehrig, this rewrites Shakespeare’s classical tale where the protagonists are two homosexual teenage men. The book cover shows the teens about to kiss. Another title is “The Feeling of Falling in Love” by Mason Deaver. This is about another teen homosexual relationship. A reviewer of the book cautioned that “the sex scenes might feel jarring to some.”
OYA also published a list of 25 books in a February 2024 blog post. These were written by “Black LGBTQIA+ Authors … for queer youth and their families.” Every single one was available at this library.
The fourth and final installment will probe into OYA’s infiltration of government schools, and disclose who’s funding and leading the entity.
