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| State Senator Mark D. Leno (D-CA) |
This is a revival of similar efforts launched five years ago when state lawmakers approved a similar measure only to have run into serious opposition from then Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
His successor, Democrat Jerry Brown, has not taken a public position on Leno's bill which supportive lawmakers and LGBTQ rights activists see as a positive sign that the state's school curriculum will be revised. However, the renewed effort has divided religious leaders, educators and lawmakers, prompting accusations from those opposed that Leno and his supporters are seeking to impose their values on the students and parents who find same-sex relationships morally objectionable.
One very vocal opponent of the measure is Sacramento school board member Craig DeLuz. Deluz, who is also a parent, said:
"It is requiring taxpayers to foot the bill to promote a lifestyle to which they may or may not be morally opposed. It is, in fact, legislating morality."
Senator Leno disagreed stating that the bill addresses "a glaring oversight in educating young people that has led to harassment of gays by their classmates."
During a recent Senate education committee hearing, Leno emotionally invoked the name of Seth Walsh, the13-year-old student from Tehachapi, California who committed suicide last year after enduring ongoing Anti-Gay bullying at his middle school.
"In light of the ongoing and ever-threatening phenomenon of bullying and the tragic result of suicides, it seems to me that better informed students might be more welcoming in their approach to differences among their classmates. Students would better understand that we are talking about a civil rights movement," he said.
Senate Bill 48, if passed into law, would revise social study/history textbooks and could have impact beyond California's borders. Since the state is a major purchaser of educational textbooks, national book publishers often print books tailored for California curriculum that other states utilise.
The legislation would require that social science texts and other instruction include "a study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans … to the economic, political and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society."
Republicans are aggressively opposing the measure. State Senator Robert Huff (R-Diamond Bar), told those gathered in the same education committee hearing that it would "sexualize the training of our children at an early age."
Leno, taking offence at Huff's statement retorted; "I would imagine you have never been harassed or discriminated against because you are gay. I have."
The Senate education committee went on to pass it on a 6-3 party-line vote late last week.
The state's LGBTQ equality rights activists argue that this legislation is long overdue and would extend recognition to contributions made by LGBTQ Californians along with other significant American LGBTQ persons that have thus far only been provided in the state's textbooks and classrooms to historical figures whom are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American.
Arland Steen, a pastor for a Thousand Oaks, California, Anti-Gay Christian group that is vehemently opposed to the bill told reporters:
"At a time when our state lacks dollars to pay for the current needs in education, this Legislature is actually considering adding more financial burden on schools to pay for new textbooks that will teach so-called gay history."
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1 comments:
Again we are faced with this crap about a gay 'lifestyle' as if there is a choice about being a homosexual. Sure, some gays have a rather loose lifestyle, but that is in no way different from rather loose lifestyles held by heterosexuals.
It is a pity that educational standards can be determined, at least in part, by the abysmally ignorant.
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