California's 'Gay History' Bill Advances

Susan Jones | Senior Editor | Published: May 05, 2006

California's 'Gay History' Bill Advances

(CNSNews.com) - A California Senate committee has approved a bill requiring "gay history" to be included in public school textbooks. The bill now moves to the full Senate, where a vote may come next week.

Not requiring textbooks to include homosexuals' and transgenders' contributions to California history amounts to "enforced invisibility," said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, the Democrat lesbian who introduced the bill.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the bill has attracted national attention because California accounts for about 12 percent of the nation's textbook market.

SB 1437 reads in part, "No textbook or other instructional materials shall be adopted by the state board or by any governing board for use in the public schools that contains any matter reflecting adversely upon persons because of their race or ethnicity, gender, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion."

The bill also requires all social studies textbooks to "study the role and contributions of...people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender...with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society."

The conservative Campaign for Children and Families testified against the "transsexual-bisexual-homosexual curriculum bill," calling it "sexual indoctrination."

'Mental molestation'

CCF President Randy Thomasson is urging Americans to "loudly protest at every opportunity," and he is urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to announce that such bills will be vetoed when they reach his desk.

"Use today's bad news to spur you to righteousness," Thomasson said in a press release.

According to Thomasson, the bill authorizes the California Department of Education to sue any school district that does not promote or positively portray transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality in textbooks, instructional materials, and school-sponsored activities.

"SB 1437 turns every school into a sexual indoctrination center," he said. "This bill isn't about 'safety' or 'discrimination,' it's about leading children into sexual confusion."

Thomasson has accused Democrats of "mentally molesting" impressionable children.

"Parents send their children to school for academics, not for transsexual, bisexual, or homosexual indoctrination. SB 1437 means schools will promote same-sex 'marriages' and even sex-change operations to kids.

"The voters won't stand for this," Thomasson said.

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California's 'Gay History' Bill Advances