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Precedent-setting Calif. Laws include homosexual teachers


RIVERSIDE, Calif. (BP)–Calif. Gov. Gray Davis signed three pro-homosexual bills into law Oct. 2, including a measure buttressing the rights of homosexual and lesbian public school teachers.
Davis selected the date to coincide with his and President Bill Clinton’s presence at a fund-raising “Gay and Lesbian Presidential Dinner” in Beverly Hills, the governor’s spokeswoman Hilary McLean said.
Art Croney, lobbyist and executive director of the Committee on Moral Concerns, a nonprofit group funded in part by the California Southern Baptist Convention, lamented it is “the first time ever in the history of California to have a governor who is radical enough to sign these bills.”
“The laws we are passing now have never been accepted in any civilization or any religion,” Croney lamented. “No civilization in all of human history has given this type of societal recognition to gays and lesbians.”
Davis, at the homosexual fund-raiser in Beverly Hills, stated, “These three bills will send a message across this country and around the world that we are determined to unleash the full potential of the human spirit here in California.”
Davis’ action indeed is expected to ripple across the nation, Croney warned. “The gay activists aren’t going to be satisfied with this,” he said. “They’re just now feeling empowered.”
The bills Davis signed into law are:
— Assembly Bill 26, which establishes a statewide registry for domestic partnerships, which it defines as same-sex couples of legal age and heterosexual couples age 62 or older.
— Assembly Bill 537, which adds “sexual orientation” to a list of protected classifications in the state’s education code prohibiting harassment and discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion ancestry, national origin, disability and gender.
AB537 also means school districts cannot refuse to hire and cannot dismiss teachers because of their sexual lifestyle choices, according to information supplied by Capitol Resource Institute in Sacramento, Calif., a Christian values-based educational nonprofit organization.
— Assembly Bill 1001, which adds sexual orientation to anti-discrimination provisions of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act. This measure elevates sexual orientation to the level of race or ethnicity, which are protected by civil rights laws. AB 1001 requires tax-funded investigations, and fines and damages of up to $50,000, for violations of the law.
Davis vetoed Senate Bill 75, which would have provided domestic partner registration as an alternative to marriage for any couple. The governor called the bill “overly broad.”
Still on hold is Assembly Bill 1670, which would provide protected “civil rights” status to homosexuals and allow $150,000 in fines and damages to be levied against people who did not want to do business with people who chose a homosexual lifestyle, according to the Capitol Resource Institute. If the governor does not rule on the bill by Oct. 10, it automatically becomes law by default.
“These bills have been around for years,” Croney said. “The difference is that we have a new governor, one who supports the gay agenda. It’s theoretically possible to challenge the laws in court. But we have a liberal judiciary. We lost that branch of government a long time ago.”
California in 1975 was one of the first states to abolish a law prohibiting sodomy. Davis’ election last year “emboldened [gay] activists to introduce their most ambitious legislative package ever,” stated an Oct. 3 report in the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee daily newspaper. “[T]he governor did not disappoint them.”
Wiley Drake, pastor at First Southern Baptist Church, Buena Park, Calif., was among the speakers at a noontime rally of about 200 people Oct. 5 in front of Davis’ Riverside office.
The rally, during which a cardboard cutout of the governor was tarred and feathered, was sponsored by the nonprofit Campaign for California Families.
Drake is pastor of a church in a commercial part of Buena Park that squared off with city officials about three years ago after about 20 homeless people sought sanctuary on church property. Today more than 200 people live on the property; the church is in a building program to provide suitable living quarters.
“We see right here at First Southern the terrible hideousness of AIDS and the results of broken lives as a result of homosexual promiscuity,” Drake told the rally in explaining why he joined the anti-homosexual-rights movement. “Their lifestyle literally becomes a physical as well as spiritual suicide.”
Making laws that promote more of the same is counterproductive, Drake said.
“If we go back to the early writings of the communist party in this country, we find one of their flagship enterprises was to promote homosexuality because they knew that was breaking the foundation of the family, and that would break America,” Drake explained. “The demise of the human race has just begun.”
Drake listed seven steps of action that could be taken against Davis:
1) “Adopt a commitment to follow the Bible as Peter and the other apostles did when they said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men,’ in Acts 5:29, and proclaim God’s truth about homosexuality as found in Romans 1:24-32.”
2) “Commence imprecatory prayer and cry out to God for vengeance and judgment as David did in Psalm 109:1-31.”
3) “Commit to daily prayer for those caught up in the sin of homosexuality and any other sin of the flesh.”
4) “Continue communication and prayer sessions with legislators who honor and uphold the Judeo-Christian values our state and nation were founded upon.”
5) “Work as though everything depended on us, but know and trust God for the final victory, as well as new legislation to counter these ungodly laws.”
6) “Pray and ask God for his mercy and patience to hold his terrible ‘Woe’ when he said, ‘Woe to them who call evil good, and good, evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’ Isaiah 5:20.”
7) “Pray that the pulpits of America proclaim the whole Word of God as we ask God for revival in our country.”
“When the governor signed those bills, we obviously were disappointed and spent some time praying and crying for our nation, because we know as California goes, so goes the nation,” Drake said. “We are afraid this is going to set a very bad precedent for the rest of the nation.”
So what’s a Christian American to do?
“They could elect a conservative majority to the assembly or the senate; they have that opportunity every two years,” said Croney, speaking specifically about California of an effort needed in any state. “Too many people don’t vote and some who do are taken in by campaign ads.
“You can’t use campaign advertising to decide which candidate will be a better lawmaker,” Croney continued. “Look at their voting record. If someone voted for gay rights it doesn’t matter how conservative their advertising is.”