LINCOLN- The Nebraska Department of Education has revised its proposed health-education standards, stripping out many of the sex-education references that provoked a groundswell of opposition to its first draft.

Nebraska Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt said he hopes the changes are enough to move the standards forward.

This second draft of the standards is expected to be posted Thursday morning to the website of the Nebraska Department of Education and is open to public comment. Blomstedt said he expects that some people still won’t be satisfied — whether they are critics still upset by what’s included or others upset by what’s been cut. He said he hopes that, moving forward, both sides can find common ground.

Supporters of the first draft said the original wording would save lives. They had said the language recognizing diverse family structures, gender identities and sexual orientations would make those children and families feel welcome instead of leaving them ostracized and vulnerable to depression and suicide.

Blomstedt said he did not run the revisions past Gov. Pete Ricketts, who sharply criticized the first draft, but he said the two have talked about the governor’s concerns. Ricketts has been touring the state calling for scrapping the sex-education topics from the standards, saying they were not age-appropriate and that they were developed with input from activists.

As of last week, 47 Nebraska school boards had passed resolutions or sent letters to the department expressing opposition to the first draft. An opposition group calling itself Protect Nebraska Children has flooded meetings of the Nebraska State Board of Education to voice its displeasure.

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