Neo-Emancipatory Sex Education in Germany: Sexual Abuse and Gender Confusion

Abstract

This article focuses on two related areas of concern with regard to sex education and implications for children and youth in Germany. The first one is the history of the currently dominant neo-emancipatory sexual education and its implications for today. This direction of sex education is highly influenced by theories of Helmut Kentler who with the help of the German city of Berlin youth protection services department sent homeless and troubled boys to known pedophiles for care. This experiment went on for 30 years, ending in 2001. Only now has the extend of this horrific practice been fully discovered. The authors will outline the fact that Kentler's central ideas are still manifest in neo-emancipatory sex education in Germany today. The second area of concern is the dramatic increase in youth who question their biological sex and seek medical intervention to change it, even though the evidence base for medical intervention is controversial. The deconstruction of biological sex is also actively supported and fostered by neo-emancipatory sexual education. The authors will describe and demonstrate that both directions of neo-emancipatory sex education break down protective spaces for children and youth and make them more vulnerable for abuse and psychological and physical damage. Methodologically this is a literature review. Documents and books by Helmut Kentler himself are quoted and analysed. In addition, relevant, current literature about the topic of gender dysphoria is reviewed.