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Renee Biggs, a Central Valley Christian School teacher, joined a dozen or so others in protest of the bill outside Apple Valley (CA) Town Hall on April 17. She told The Daily Press, “They are taking husbands and wives out of the text books. Kids will be taught bi-sexuality is the norm and have unisex bathrooms.”
She's serious.
Doh!
Valid points of discussion, such as age and grade specifics, and how the bill will work off paper, took a back seat to the concerns of those eager to equate an elementary school history lesson with a lecture by Hugh Hefner.
On May 3, the Christian Newswire reported that Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-family organization, said this about the bill: “ Democrat politicians are mentally molesting impressionable kids as young as kindergarten … SB 1437 means schools will promote same-sex ‘marriages' and even sex-change operations to kids … Children don't need the History of Sex according to Playboy or the History of Sex according to the California State Legislature.”
Thomasson and Biggs are so blinded by their bigotry that they don't even realize their ridiculous arguments in opposition of the bill illustrate vividly exactly why the bill is needed.
Where are the people with the dunce caps when you need them?
For the record, here are the statements in the final bill that upset those folks:
“Instruction in social sciences shall include the early history of California and an age-appropriate study of the role and contributions of both men and women, Black Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and other ethnic groups, and people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, 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 …”
“No teacher shall give instruction nor shall a school district sponsor any activity that reflects adversely upon persons because of their race or ethnicity, gender, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion…”
“When adopting instructional materials for use in the schools, governing boards shall include only instructional materials which, in their determination, accurately portray in an age-appropriate manner the cultural, racial, gender, and sexual orientation diversity of our society…”
Schools are already required to teach the historical and social roles of other groups, so Kuehl is just extending current law to include and protect GLBT persons. Sinister? Hardly. Thomasson can try to equate the bill to a gay porn film festival if he'd like, but all the drivel in the world won't change the fact that the language of the bill is not convoluted or evil, but straight-forward and well intentioned, as is Kuehl's motivation.
In Senate Committee records, Kuehl is quoted as saying, “The absence from our curriculum of positive images of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people and their many contributions to California and the United States is a disservice to all children. Silence and biased messages about lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people only promotes negative stereotypes and this, in turn, can lead to discrimination, harassment, and violence.”
We've known for quite some time that what Kuehl points out is true. So, the question the public should be asking is not, why do school children need to know a person is gay? But, rather, what the hell took so long?
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