Sacramento, Calif., Oct 16, 2007 / 08:09 am
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law a bill requiring all California public schools to positively portray homosexuality to children as young as kindergarten.
The bill from the California Legislature, Senate Bill 777, forbids any instruction or school-sponsored activity that "promotes a discriminatory bias" against gender and sexual orientation.
The bill's critics believe that since no current instruction disparages sexual orientation, the absence of such topics from school textbooks and instruction will be considered to be biased. Positive portrayals of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexualism, they believe, will therefore be required.
Any schools violating the law will be subject to lawsuits from the State Department of Education.
Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, led the opposition to this bill. He predicts the bill would require changing commonplace presentations in school materials and activities. Textbooks could be forbidden from portraying marriage as only between a man and a woman; textbooks could be required to present homosexual historical figures; and sex-specific Homecoming King and Queen contests could be forced to change. The legislation might even mandate unisex restrooms.
Mr. Thomasson attacked the California legislation. “Shame on Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians for ensuring that every California school becomes a homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination center," he said.