A number of anti-gay groups are pushing initiatives to gut a California law that mandates classes on the contributions of prominent minorities, because they say the inclusion of gays and lesbians in the language “endorses” being gay and is part of the “sexual brainwashing” and “indoctrination” of our nation’s youth.
The FAIR Education law, also known as SB 48, broadly requires teachers to include instruction and textbooks with information on the contributions of a number of minority groups, including gays and lesbians, and prohibits the lessons from containing material that negatively reflects on any one group.
A number of right-wing groups have filed initiatives to repeal the law, or at least gut out the pertinent language, because it teaches kids to “endorse transgenderism, bisexuality, and homosexuality, looking to individuals with these lifestyles as models and viewing their sexual lifestyles positively,” according to Stop SB 48.
There are currently five initiatives that have been filed with the state’s Attorney General.
The first two were filed in November by Richard Rios, one named the Committee to Repeal SB48 and one as the Committee for Parental Rights for Education. The first would remove the part of the law that mandates lessons about the contributions of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans,” because, as the filing says, “the public school system is responsible to educate our children in the basic education of reading, writing, and math and not to promote political and sociology dogma to students as young as five.”
The one submitted by the Committee for Parental Rights for Education would allow parents to write a note that excuses their kid from lessons if it conflicts with “religious training and beliefs.”
Rios filed a third initiative on November 21 for the Committee to Repeal SB48, which, according to the site San Diego Gay & Lesbian News,
cuts out the part of the law that specifies “Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, persons with disabilities, and members of other ethnic groups.” In place it says “Black Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Islander people, and other ethnic groups.”
On November 22, the Traditional Values Coalition filed “The Bipartisan Initiative To Restore Local School Board Control Act,” which would cut out any reference to sexual orientation and gays and lesbians in the law. It also removes mention of people with disabilities. Lou Sheldon, the head of the group, said that the law removes “from local school boards many important rights and powers essential to local governance and subjecting all California school children to massive new instructional standards.”
Stop SB 48, the group behind an unsuccessful attempt to get a ballot referendum to repeal the law, filed the Children Learning Accurate Social Science (CLASS) Act this week, which would require “accurate historical portrayals of all individuals.”
Jack Hibbs, one of the initiative’s sponsors, explained: “We all know that the issue of homosexuality is controversial. It is unacceptable to require that our schools shine a spotlight on this lifestyle on the one hand and then demand that history books and teachers censor shortcomings on the other.”
Karen England of Capitol Resource, which is part of the Stop SB 48 coalition, told OneNewsNow
that this time around they would have more time to collect signatures. “It’s just going to make the parents more angry when their kindergartner [or] first-grader [is] being taught these things,” she said. “And it’s going to give more fuel and momentum to our battle here to make sure that history is taught, but history is taught and it’s fair and accurate and not just based on someone’s sexual orientation.”
The group Save California, run by Randy Thomasson, is also touting web ads that “Urge California Parents To Rescue Their Children from Sexual Indoctrination,” and asking for donations to help the group run them.
“The most in-year-face [sic] law that forces children as young as 5 years old to admire homosexuality, bisexuality, cross-dressing, and ‘sex changes’ is SB 48, which goes in effect in January with its ‘supplemental materials’ mandate on every public school in the state,” Thomasson said in a statement.
“Because of the Democrats’ social-engineering laws, children left in California government schools are guaranteed sexual brainwashing, but proficiency in reading, writing, and computing are not guaranteed at all,” he added.
