FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 3rd, 2025

Contact: Alison Macklin

amacklin@siecus.org

The Supreme Court’s decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which upholds Texas’s invasive age verification law, represents a dangerous step backward for free speech and individual privacy. “This ruling does more than regulate adult access to online content; it opens the floodgates to censoring of sex education and LGBTQIA+ affirming materials,” said Christine Soyong Harley, President & CEO of SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change.

Although the case focuses on requiring age verification to access adult content, the Court’s decision reinforces a dangerous trend toward government overreach on citizen’s privacy and unnecessary restriction to accessing lawful content. This ruling could have broad implications for other content online that some may claim is “sexually obscene” solely for discussing sexual and reproductive health topics – such as sex education content. Given the current political reality in Texas where sex education must teach that homosexuality is illegal, we can anticipate that LGBTQIA+ materials will specifically be stigmatized and targeted as “obscene” in attempts to curtail access to medically accurate and inclusive information.

While pornography and sex education are very different, this decision is a departure from unrestricted access to First Amendment protected material online. Additionally, this decision contributes to a culture that views discussions about and displays of sexuality as inappropriate and risks enabling further restrictions in other states that would disproportionately affect young people and marginalized communities seeking truthful, affirming health information.

Now more than ever, we must come together to defend the right to freely access comprehensive, inclusive sex education content and oppose policies that threaten free expression and threaten personal privacy. SIECUS fights for all  to have access to honest, empowering information, which is essential for building safe, informed, and equitable communities.

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SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change has served as a leading national voice for sex education since 1964, asserting that sexuality is a fundamental part of being human, one worthy of dignity and respect. Through advocacy, policy, and coalition building, SIECUS advances sex education as a vehicle for social change—where all people receive sex education, are affirmed in their identities, and have the power to make decisions about their own health, pleasure, and wholeness.