Aiming to ensure children across Maryland receive consistent health and sex education, the House of Delegates passed a bill Friday that would put curriculum requirements in law and limit when students can opt out.

The largely party-line vote represented the third year in a row that state delegates have sought to weigh in on curriculum. The measure has not passed the Senate in past years, but supporters are hopeful this time.

Supporters framed the measure as intended to promote inclusivity and to teach children to respect others and to protect themselves. Opponents bristled that it limits when parents can remove their children from lessons that might run counter to their personal or religious beliefs.

Much of the bill takes what’s already included in state education regulations and enshrines it in law, including lessons on family life, human sexuality, gender and sexual orientation. It also adds requirements that schools teach students about social media and online interactions, healthy living and human trafficking, said Del. Vanessa Atterbeary, a Howard County Democrat and cosponsor of the bill.

“This is how we keep kids safe. We keep kids safe by teaching them what is medically and scientifically correct,” not by letting them learn on social media, Atterbeary said during debate this week. She chairs the committee that gave the bill preliminary approval.

The bill would prevent parents or guardians from opting out of gender and sexual orientation lessons. They could opt out of family life and human sexuality lessons.

Del. Kris Fair, the other sponsor of the bill, said teaching students about different sexual orientations and gender identities will help children feel seen and included in school.

In emotional remarks before the House this week, Fair said he stayed “deeply closeted” in high school after seeing another student who was ruthlessly bullied and attempted suicide.

“Those kids still are who they are. They deserve access to education. They deserve access to knowing who they are and understanding safe, healthy relationships and what safe, healthy relationships can look like,” said Fair, a Frederick County Democrat who chairs the legislature’s LGBTQ+ Caucus.

It’s not appropriate, Fair said, “to act like all people don’t exist.”

Del. Sandy Bartlett revealed that she was abused as a child — and suggested that having more information could have helped her understand earlier the wrong that had been done to her.

“I bet you if someone had told me when I was 9 years old, when I was 10 years old, when I was 8 years old that what was happening to me was wrong, it would have made all the difference in my life,” said Bartlett, an Anne Arundel County Democrat. “It also would have empowered me to say no to the individual.”

Del. Matt Morgan took up the Republican cause of parental rights during final debate on the bill Friday.

“The only reason for this bill was to crack down on those parents that were opting out. That’s the only reason for the bill: to punish, to bring to their knee those parents that have decided to opt their children out,” said Morgan, who represents St. Mary’s County and is chair of the nascent Freedom Caucus in Annapolis.

Morgan complained of the “sanctimonious” speeches from Democrats who he said suggested opponents were bigots.

Earlier in the week, lawmakers defeated a proposed amendment from Del. April Rose, a Carroll County Republican, that would have allowed parents or guardians to remove their children from lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Carroll County has been a flashpoint for debates over these issues, with the school system previously balking at adopting a new state health curriculum. That county also has been a focus of a Moms for Liberty-led effort to remove certain books from school libraries and classrooms.

Del. Anne Kaiser, a Montgomery County Democrat, said all students, regardless of where they live, should have an appropriate and thorough health education.

“This is for the LGBTQ kids in Carroll County and around the state of Maryland,” she said, noting that half of all LGBTQ children report feeling unsafe in school.

Rose pushed back against that claim. “We do treat our children with respect,” she said.

Atterbeary said students are taught sensitive topics in an age-appropriate way. Kindergartners, she said, are taught that people should be respected and that some people are different. As students get older, the lessons progress.

She said opponents have been inaccurate in suggesting kindergartners are taught about sex.

“Let’s stop saying that, people,” Atterbeary said. “I know it makes a great headline for your constituents, but it’s not true.”

Following Friday’s 95-39 vote, the bill heads to the state Senate for consideration.