Sex ed revised for the times: Montgomery program opponents decry new focus on homosexuality.

Byline: Rona Marech

Mar. 8--The birds and the bees are well and good, but leaders of Montgomery County's public schools believe changing times call for a changing sex education curriculum. So a select group of eighth-graders is learning definitions for words such as "homosexual" and "sexual identity," and their high school counterparts are set to watch a condom demonstration video, talk about anti-gay prejudice, and read and discuss the personal stories of people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender.

The new health curriculum was introduced this week at Argyle Middle School and will hit Julius West Middle School today. Barring court intervention, field-testing will continue in a total of six schools through March and will be implemented districtwide in the fall. Few other counties -- in the state or even the nation -- have health classes that expressly deal with sexual orientation. While many in the community applaud the pioneering curriculum, others are unhappy about the five 45-minute lessons at the heart of a heated debate. A group that sued over the issue a couple of years back reunited to ask the Maryland State Board of Education to keep the curriculum out of classrooms. If the appeal fails, it…