A controversial bill that bans bias against homosexuals, transgenders, and bisexuals in public schools was passed on Thursday by the California Senate, unleashing a wave of concern through those opposed to normalizing homosexuality.
SB 777 went through by a 23-13 vote, and would prohibit all classes, textbooks, and teachers from any instruction that "reflects or promotes bias against" those perceived with gender issues. All instructional materials and school activities would then have to positively portray all of these sexually alternative lifestyles, something many refuse to support.
Children starting from kindergarten would learn about the practices, as a result, and would be forced to accept them as socially acceptable, pro-family conservatives argue.
"SB 777 is designed to transform our public schools into institutions that disregard all notions of the traditional family unit," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), in a statement. "This reverse discrimination is an outright attack on the religious and moral beliefs of California citizens."
Voting for the bill went strictly along party lines with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed, passing a slim margin of three votes. No Republican senator made an address to oppose the legislation.
SB 777 is much like a previous bill that was passed in the last session of the California legislature, SB 1437, but was subsequently vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"Parents are angry at the Democrats for passing this school sexual indoctrination bill and frustrated that Republicans did little to fight it," explained Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a California-based pro-family organization, in a statement. "We call on Arnold Schwarzenegger to pledge that he will respect parents, protect children, and veto this bad bill, just like he did last year."
As part of the bill, which was authored by Senator Sheila Kuehl, a lesbian, the language also redefined what the word “gender” means, stating that “gender” means “sex” but that a person’s gender identity and related appearance can constitute “sex” despite the person’s assigned “sex” at birth. SB 777 also erased the current definition of “sex” from the education code, which originally defined it as the biological condition of being male or female.
Several parents, Christians and non-Christians, have voiced their concern over schools regulating what their children should think is acceptable. They feel their children should not be forced to support homosexuality and other non-traditional gender lifestyles as being normal and healthy.
"The notion of forcing children to support controversial sexual lifestyles is shocking and appalling to millions of fathers and mothers," added Thomasson. "Parents don't want their children taught to become homosexual or bisexual or to wonder whether they need a sex-change operation. SB 777 will shatter the academic purpose of education by turning every government school into a sexual indoctrination center."
Under the bill, school districts must comply with the new standards or else they will be regulated by the California Department of Education. In addition, teachers do not need parental permission to teach about the subjects to their students.
According to CRI, the Los Angeles Unified School District has already implemented the policies in this bill.
"In that district, boys who perceive themselves as girls may enter the girls' locker room and restroom,” described Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for CRI, in a statement. “Teachers and school officials are required to hide the gender identity of a transgender student if the parents are unaware of what's taking place at school. This astonishing policy will be expanded to every school in the state if SB 777 becomes law."
Students up to the twelfth grade would be affected by the bill.
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I don't know how many of you have actually read the SB777, I have and while I may not agree with everything it says, it doesn't say anything about promoting homosexuality in the education setting. What it is attempting to do is prevent the "discrimination of pupils based on gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic contained in the definition of hate crimes that is contained in the Penal Code." (SB777, I have seen other information which states "mom and dad will be considered promoting bias against homosexuals" I didn't read anything in the SB which referred to the label "mom and dad" as promoting bias against homosexuals. I find it hard to believe that this is going to do anything more significant than it did for students with disabilities, women, and minorities. Unfortunately at this time our country seems to be full of fear, and those fears are being transferred into hate to different groups including those of different sexual orientation, disabilities, women, and minorities. So I guess until we no longer have hate crimes and we can all come to tolerate others we will need our government to set up regulations and rules for how we conduct ourselves.
What is this world coming to? Kids aren't going to have a gender anymore? So who cares if you are having a boy or girl, the schools will brain wash them to be whatever sex they feel like being. THIS IS CRAZY! Don't you think we have enough problems in this world? I would pull my kids out of public school so fast! Parents, wake up and fight this!
I'm not sure where anyone else went to school but I went to a public school. Many public schools because I moved around. No where was I taught anything negative about homosexuality. I never heard a teacher say anything bad. Then the bill says it's for everyone's protection? You don't hear about kids getting beat up anymore for their lifestyle. If it does happen it is few and far in between. What about other kids that get beat up for different reasons? Are we going to pass a bill to protect the nerds, ethnic minorities, attractive people (there are haters out there that won't like you just because you're pretty and people are attracted to you), etc? Why are we just trying to protect one group of people? I don't think children should be taught about this lifestyle. They're not even taught about the heterosexual lifestyle so why will we be teaching them this? Why was religion taken out of schools? Why do we not have to say the Pledge of Alegiance anymore? Because some people thought it was affecting their rights. So why are we going to have to learn this lifestyle if many people are opposed to it? What about our rights?
WAY to BLOW this outta proportion. All that bill did was make it so that kids who are "confused" or actually are homosexual, it has made going through school easier for them. We are told that all people no matter who they are deserve an education. Well in a PUBLIC school system where teachers and teaching materials openly bash homosexual lifestyle, i would make any kid who is homosexual or "confused" want to get away and not go because they know how they will be treated. This is why we have gangs and gang violence. These kids are looking for acceptance that they are not receiving and a gang is a sorta of family to these kids. This is another example of why the nation is slowly falling apart. People blow simple things out of proportion and shoot their mouths off w/o all the facts. If only human intelligence and common sense hadn't died out...
Very telling that "Christian" Post would label it a "Homosexual Curriculum" instead of an Equality Curriculum.