SACRAMENTO, Calif. (BP)–A bill that presumably would prevent California public school teachers from saying anything negative about homosexuality has been re-introduced in the state Senate.
Opponents say its impact will be far-reaching, forcing schools to promote homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism to students as young as kindergarten.
It is nearly identical to one vetoed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last September.
The newest bill, SB 777, would prevent teachers from “giv(ing) instruction” and school districts from sponsoring “any activity” that “reflects adversely upon persons because of” their “gender” or “sexual orientation” — phrases that encompass homosexuality and transgenderism. The bill also prohibits textbooks “or other instructional materials” from including information casting homosexuality and transgenderism in a negative light.
In essence, the bill mandates a one-sided view on homosexuality. Its sponsor once again is Democratic state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a lesbian and a member of the California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Caucus.
The California-based Campaign for Children and Families said the bill will lead to the promotion of “gay marriage” within schools.
“(B)ecause parental units are gender-specific, married couples or a family with a ‘father and a mother’ would be portrayed as mere stereotypes –- outdated ideas — and could be prohibited from textbooks because their discriminatory inclusion ‘reflects adversely,'” CCF said in a statement. “Under SB 777, school curriculum in every public school throughout California, in every grade K-12, would have to portray transsexual and bisexual ‘parents’ as normal. In essence, SB 777 would teach schoolchildren that there is no such thing as the natural family.”
CCF President Randy Thomasson said the bill is about “sexual indoctrination in the classroom.”
The bill does not include a section requiring the teaching of “gay history,” which last year’s bill originally had before that section was stripped. Thomasson, though, says the bill nevertheless will lead to the inclusion of “gay history” in the classroom.
“SB 777 will still require history books and history discussions to positively portray persons who engaged in homosexual, bisexual or transsexual behavior, because it would ‘reflect adversely’ not to do so,” he said. “This is the transsexual-bisexual-homosexual curriculum bill and the ‘gay history’ bill as well, because that will be this anti-family legislation’s real impact.”
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Compiled by Michael Foust
