Posted on 08/07/2006 6:46:00 PM PDT by calcowgirl
The state Assembly on Monday gutted a bill that would have required California textbooks to include the historical contributions of homosexuals, amending it to say only that school material should not be discriminatory toward gays.
Lawmakers voted 56-2 to delete the provision at the request of the bill's author, Sen. Sheila Kuehl, who had feared a gubernatorial veto.
Her bill instead would prohibit any negative portrayal of homosexuals in textbooks and other instructional material, expanding current anti-discrimination laws that apply to minorities.
"I'm not really someone who wants to plop something down on his desk for him to veto," said Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. "I want a signature."
She said she was upset that Schwarzenegger had taken the unusual step of issuing an opinion about a bill before it reached his desk.
Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson on Monday reiterated the governor's May veto threat of Kuehl's bill but declined to comment on the amended version.
Kuehl said that Schwarzenegger chief of staff Susan Kennedy told her privately that the governor "has been getting a lot of heat about your bill when he goes to speak to conservatives. He just doesn't want to sign it."
Although many Assembly Republicans voted for the amendments, they remained opposed to the underlying bill, which continues to elicit opposition from conservative groups.
"We took a terrible bill and took some of the sting out of it," Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, said in an interview after the vote. "It's still a bad bill."
Huff, a member of the Assembly Education Committee, said additional anti-discriminatory language was not needed because any teacher promoting an anti-gay message would be sued.
Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia, said the proposed changes were "nothing more than putting perfume on a pig."
Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, called upon Schwarzenegger to keep his promise to veto the bill.
"SB 1437 still requires all teachers, all textbooks and all instructional materials to positively portray cross-dressing, sex-change operations, bisexuality and homosexuality, including homosexual 'marriages,'" Thomasson said of the amended bill.
State law prohibits textbooks from portraying people negatively because of their race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin or ancestry. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equity California, said the gay and lesbian community should be added to the list.
"Youth in schools should be able to come to school and not feel disparaged," Kors said.
With the amendments passed Monday, the Assembly next will vote on the full bill. If approved, it would be sent back to the Senate, which approved the bill in its original form in May.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, who presented Kuehl's amendments, said he expected a spirited floor debate on the bill.
"We're removing provisions of the bill that have proactive mandates but keeping the bill intact where it relates to anti-discrimination," he said. "Anti-gay literature ought not to be presented to our children."
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On the Net:
Read the bill, SB 1437, at http://www.sen.ca.gov
Hey Sheila,, Up Yurs!!!
Do you want to add your contact info here, also?
"I'm not really someone who wants to plop something down on his desk for him to veto," said Kuehl, D-Santa Monica. "I want a signature."
"Zelda!-cut that out!"
It is still unacceptable.
For example, in texas it is required that homosexuality be taught as a negative lifestyle from a health and scienctific point of view.
Which dead people will the homosexuals protect as a "homo".
If it is shown Hitler was a homosexual, does that mean Calif. Schools will have to portray hitler positivly?
How about hitler's browshirts who were lead by homosexuals?
I'm writing the Governor tonight. This has to be stopped - not because it's evil personified, or because it's extreme; but because it's the first step on a slippery slope that even the most depraved among us do not want to go down - they only THINK they do. And as usual, it's up to us to protect them from themselves, just like teenagers.
How very, very tiresome.
In the long run, this will encourage more California parents to switch to private schools and homeschooling.
Because, you know, we have a problem in California right now with the textbooks just being full of negative portrayals of homosexuals. Someone needs to fix that.
I agree that it makes no sense to label historical figures as homosexual--especially in light of the fact that Michel Foucault gives 1870 as the "invention" of the modern concept of homosexuality. Before then, so Foucault opines, individuals were not thought of as being homosexual, but rather they were people who sometimes engaged in deviant behavior. In that vein, it is unlikely that Michelangelo or Socrates or whoever else somebody might want to label as homosexual would have actually thought of themselves as homosexual.
A big controversy amongst Willa Cather scholars is whether to label her as a lesbian. She certainly never identified herself as a lesbian, though she usually adopted a masculine appearance, never married, and from time to time lived with a woman.
It's not as simple as just slapping a lable on somebody and then somehow trying to make that label be an integral part in whatever contribution the person made. I do think it is better to just leave the issue alone, at least in high school textbooks.
Maybe graduate students can discuss the possibility of Michelangelo's attraction to men (if it can indeed be historically verified, I've heard about it but I haven't seen the evidence so I don't know) somehow impacting his artwork--but is that really something that pre-college children need to be worrying about?
>>It is still unacceptable.
True. And by amending it, Kuehl has superceded the Governor's promise to veto the bill.
Will he still veto it now?
------
Let the the governor know how you feel: 1-916-445-2841.
The phone recording will ask:
A. Do you want this message in English?" yes, press 1
B. Is this in regards to a legislation bill? yes, press 2
C. Is the bill SB 1437? yes, press 1
D. Are you in favor of this legislation? no, press 2
[Thanks to agthorn for instructions]
Hey lets make sure that all commies and nazi's are portrayed positively too
Really?
I thought that Kennedy was forbidden to discuss Republican, strategy matters with Democrats.
I would have bet that the Austrian fell back on his time tested Let the electorate decide ploy and promised Kuehl a rider on another one of his BigBangBond initiatives to be placed on the spring, 2007 ballot.
As long as opinions are being altered in textooks... tapeworms and pinworms have received much bad press. Textbooks should include a statement advocating non-discrimination toward these life forms when mentioning the gay lifestyle.
Let the electorate courts decide ploy
My guess is this was the Governor's strategy to allow him to sign it.
("Susan, go tell Sheila 'I just can't sign it . . . unless she revises . . .'.")
"Let the people decide" was the original slogan of Tom Hayden and his militant, communist collaborating SDS.
(a short while before Susan Kennedy joined on with Hayden and Fonda)
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)
Maybe, but I was referring to the strategy of elected, Republican legislators:
If you sign that bill governor, kiss a second term goodbye.
Guess when they found out that the biggest historical contribution of homosexuals is AIDS they decided to scale back.
Apparently, some of these lawmakers have never been in a middle/high school classroom. The mere mention of the word(s) sex, sexuality, etc. can throw a group of immature students into a hysteria. Sexual orientation of any type needs to be left out of core academic textbooks.
Just caught the headline - maybe the tide is turning.
it is documented in http://www.findlaw.com under texas codes.
education under health
yes it really does.
(that was NOT affected by the lawrence decision)
------
BUMP!
______________
Let the the governor know how you feel: 1-916-445-2841.
The phone recording will ask:
A. Do you want this message in English?" yes, press 1
B. Is this in regards to a legislation bill? yes, press 2
C. Is the bill SB 1437? yes, press 1
D. Are you in favor of this legislation? no, press 2
[Thanks to agthorn for instructions]
So, lets get this sorted out. If this bill gets enacted then it will be against the law for any text book to say anything bad about any one of the protected categories listed above. No matter how evil one of these protected persons might have acted, they will still be immune from close inspection because their acts might negatively impact the protected minority. So it will be impossible to teach true history because the following categories can not be mentioned negatively.
Protected Groups
So, lets see who is left. The race thing eliminates all but Anglo-Europeans, so we now have Anglo-European people. Next, the sex thing eliminates women from possible negative mention, so we are left with Anglo-European men. Next, the color thing removes all except whites, so we now have white Anglo-European men. Creed takes away everyone not Catholic/Christian yielding white Catholic/Christian Anglo-European men. The handicap issue removes any man with an identified handicap, so we are left with healthy white Catholic/Christian Anglo-European men. The national origin thing eliminates everyone from countries except "Old Europe", the USA, Canada, Australia, and South Africa, in other words Anglo-European Colonials giving us healthy white Catholic/Christian Anglo-European Colonial men. The last protected category is ANCESTRY. I find this category much too vague. I mean, who are they trying to protect with this. My only guess is peoples of mixed race parentage therefore, only racially pure bred people can be mentioned negatively. And, if Geoff Kors gets his way, GLTB people will be added to the protected list. Therefore, we are left with a very small category who may be referred to negatively in text books sanctioned by the state of California. Members in this category are racially pure bred, healthy, white, straight, Catholic/Christian, Anglo-European, Colonial men. If this describes you and California passes this legislation, you need to ask California for a kiss because you just got F*CK*D!!!!
not sure what I would add my contact info for ..
not sure what I would add my contact info for ..
you are most welcome!!!
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