Cathedral City resident Jose Sarria, the first openly gay candidate for public office and a legen... Inland voices divided over
Cathedral City resident Jose Sarria, the first openly gay candidate for public office and a legendary San Francisco drag queen, might be mentioned someday in California's school textbooks.
Next month, the Democrat-controlled Legislature will give final consideration to a bill requiring California's K-12 textbooks to mention lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their contributions to state history.
The measure, authored by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, passed the Senate with only Democratic votes this year. It is pending in the Assembly, where it has the support of Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.
"Right now, there's an effort to exclude (gays and lesbians) in textbooks, so their reputation to children is that gay and lesbians never did anything good," said Kuehl, who in 1994 became the first openly gay legislator elected in California.In 1961, Sarria ran for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors but did not win.
"We've received over 15,000 letters opposing this bill, more letters by far than on any other bill or issue in my life," said state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, who voted against the bill in May.
In 2000, California voters approved an initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman. In 2003, the Legislature passed and former Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill expanding rights for domestic partners.
Kuehl's bill would require textbook publishers and state officials to determine age-appropriate ways to present the material. For example, children in lower grades would get different lessons than teens in high school.
"The bill provides leeway in what history they want to include," said Seth Kilbourn, political director of the gay-rights organization Equality California, which sponsors the bill. "And this law is not telling teachers what they need to teach."
"I'm asked for my approval before my kid goes into a sexual-education course, but not before they talk about gays and lesbians to a kid in elementary school. How does that make sense?" said Richard Ackerman, president of the Pro-Family Law Center, a conservative legal group in Temecula.
"Plato and Aristotle had a thing for little boys, but you don't mention that to kids," Ackerman said. "That's something you find out in college when the information can be dealt with in a more rational way."
"When it comes to African-American history, children don't know about lynching . . . but they do know about Martin Luther King having a dream," Kuehl said.
"I have always believed you let people be who they are, but my opinion is someone's personal life is their personal life," said Greenstreet. "If I discovered a planet, I wouldn't want them to talk about my sexual orientation right next to that."
State Sen. Nell Soto, D-Pomona, who voted for the bill in May, said she supports the measure because it will increase students' respect for one another.
"I can be respectful and I can expect my children to be respectful of them without knowing anything about their sexuality," Ackerman said. "In an academic setting, I just don't see why that's relevant."
Palm Springs resident Len Olds, a retired elementary-school teacher, said it is possible to introduce children to issues and leaders in the gay community without "getting into the sensual part of it."
"You can teach about them as a minority group still fighting for their civil rights," said Olds, who is also founder of the Palm Springs chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group.
"We support this bill because it will just make a safer and more welcoming environment for kids at school," said CTA spokesman Frank Wells. "It's good legislation -- not radical."
For example, the state's history curriculum will not be reviewed until 2009 and new history textbooks will not used until 2011, said Susan Martimo, curriculum frameworks administrator at the California Department of Education.
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