(Newser) – It's not the fact that Republican Louie Gohmert of Texas voiced his opposition to sex education that's making headlines. It's the eyebrow-raising parallel he drew with the old Soviet Union that has triggered stories at sites such as Roll Call and Right Wing Watch. In his podcast interview with WallBuilders Live, Gohmert called sex-ed unnecessary because "mankind has existed for a pretty long time without anyone ever having to give a sex-ed lesson to anybody." We should let kids "be innocent," and if anyone does have a birds-and-bees talk with them, it should be their parents. Then came the USSR jab:

"And it reminds me so much of the summer that I was an exchange student in the Soviet Union back in the '70s, and I was shocked when they were saying, 'No, the children don't belong to parents, they belong to the state.' And if any parent said anything in front of their children negative about the wonderful Soviet Union, then we will take their children away and give them to somebody more deserving. ... And now I've seen this coming with a lady from MSNBC saying, 'Hey, children belong to the state.'"

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