There is a new bill in California that aspires to require state schools to
teach about the contributions of gay, lesbian and transgendered Americans in
school curriculum. However there is an outcry from traditional values advocates
and social conservatives against the proposed bill from State Senator Mark
Leno, SB 48.

SB 48 would require that social science texts and other instruction include "a
study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered
Americans 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.This bill also has rules stating that
school districts would have the flexibility to decide which age groups received
such instruction. So if Bakersfield wanted to discuss these topics in the
junior year of high school and San Francisco wants to discuss this in the fifth
grade, then that would be the choice of the particular communities of our
state.

Maybe the best idea would be is to have it passively mentioned in our social
science textbooks, and if a teacher does not want to discuss the subject then
that is the right of the educator or the school district. Maybe if people knew
some leading LGBT people in American history such as Oliver Sipple, a decorated
Vietnam War veteran who saved President Ford's life during an assassination
attempt in California or Bayard Rustin, a civil rights activist who helped make
the March on Washington possible for Martin Luther King people would have
better understanding of LGBT people. I just find it absurd from the mouths of
legislators  such as State Senator Bob Huff that "SB 48 will sexualize the
training of our children at an early age", when there are clauses that prevent
school districts from being mandated to discuss these subjects in the early
grades and just because people know that Ellen DeGeneres is a lesbian is not
going to convert people to be queer.





Just because someone is heterosexual or homosexual, it is not just about sex.
You can still be heterosexual or homosexual without talking about sex acts. It
is also about affection.

I know that even if we talk about the positive accomplishments of minority
communities within our state and nation, people are still going to harbor
hostility to various groups. People still want to have the right to teach their
prejudices against people, but it is not realistic to expect all of us to live
in perfect harmony even though it is our desire. I would love to vote for
Republicans, when Governors Brown and Davis laid the seeds that made our state
budget crisis worse. However I can understand why California Secretary of State
Debra Bowen left the Republican Party in 1984 because the Republican party
lacked "compassion and tolerance and respect for others." Maybe if State
Senator Huff and others had more empathy towards LGBT people, perhaps we can
reclaim some of those decline to state voters back to the Republican Party.
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32