For the past few years, the California State Legislature has gone to great lengths in order to destroy the concept of the traditional family for school-age children, claims the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI) in a recent statement. Starting in 1999 legislation was passed in order to make schools a more welcoming environment for gay students and teachers, CRI reports. These bills culminated in California’s most recent pro-homosexual bill, SB 1437, according to CRI. The group maintains that this legislation will result in the brainwashing of students to believe that the traditional family is nothing more than an unfair “stereotype”.
This bill, sponsored by Senator Kuehl (D- Los Angeles) could effectively create gender-neutral bathrooms and eliminate references to “Mom” and “Dad” as well as “Husband” and “Wife” made in classroom discussions and in textbooks, says CRI. It does this by calling for the inclusion of gender and sexual orientation in the list of characteristics that are prohibited from instruction, according to the Sacramento-based group.
This bill is one of many, beginning with Governor Gray Davis signing into law Assembly Bill (AB) 537 in September of 1999, the group recounts. This bill called for California schools to end discrimination on two new grounds “actual or perceived sexual orientation and actual or perceived gender.” The task force that was created in order to implement this law claimed that, “Schools cannot expect students to get the most out of their education when they are constantly worried about safety or are discriminated against because of who they are, who they are perceived to be, or who their families are.”
Recommendations made by the task force include integrating sexual orientation and gender identity issues into Hate-Motivated Violence Prevention training, explicitly mentioning sexual orientation and gender identity on posters about discrimination, as well as encouraging and supporting student organizations that promote gay and straight alliances.
That same year, California passed other legislation to further create a welcoming environment for gay students and teachers, according to the CRI report. One of these bills, AB 1931, went so far as to provide two million dollars for field trips to the Museum of Tolerance and similar establishments in order to normalize differences among students. At the same time, AB 606, originally an anti-discrimination bill, was amended in order to change the school curriculum to include pro-homosexual content, the CRI explained.
The most recent bill, SB 1437 will not allow instruction or school events that “reflect adversely upon persons” because of their gender and sexual orientation. According to CRI, this law would likely result in the elimination of a “prom king and queen,” dress codes, and the accommodation of transsexuals on girl-specific or boy-specific sports teams.
Although the spirit of this legislation may be to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual lifestyles from being frowned upon, it ends up undermining the importance of the traditional family, making it seem trivial and unimportant, asserts CRI. By abolishing school reinforcement of the traditional family, the California school system is attempting to shape the minds of students to accept and celebrate differences while ignoring the importance and need of the traditional family in American society, contended the CRI.
Rosemarie Capozzi is an intern at Accuracy in Academia.
