I AM SADDENED

If you've been following the news carefully, you will have read that Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB48 into law yesterday.

The State of California has changed its Education Code to insure that the contributions to our society of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are specifically called to the attention of students in the K-12 social studies curriculum.

I am politically a liberal Democrat; I am pro same-sex marriages. I do not like any kind of discrimination. I thought the movie MILK was absolutely necessary and very inspiring. However, I draw the line at making one's sexual orientation a part of the public arena. Especially a part of our school curriculum. It makes me sad that the Governor I voted for saw fit to make SB48 law.

Below is the wording from the new law, along with the Legislative Counsel's words to help citizens understand what it all means.

SB 48, Leno. Pupil instruction: prohibition of discriminatory content.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

Existing law requires instruction in social sciences to include a study of the role and contributions of both men and women and specified categories of persons to the development of California and the United States.

This bill would update references to certain categories of persons and additionally would require instruction in social sciences to include a study of the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, persons with disabilities, and members of other cultural groups, to the develop-ment of California and the United States.

Existing law prohibits instruction or school sponsored activities that promote a discriminatory bias because of race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin, or ancestry. Existing law prohibits the State Board of Education and the governing board of any school district from adopting textbooks or other instructional materials that contain any matter that reflects adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin, or ancestry.

This bill would revise the list of characteristics included in these provisions by referring to race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, and sexual orientation, or other character-istic listed as specified.

Existing law prohibits a governing board of a school district from adopting instructional materials that contain any matter reflecting adversely upon persons because of their race, color, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, handicap, or occupation, or that contain any sectarian or denominational doctrine or propaganda contrary to law.

This bill would revise the list of characteristics included in this provision to include race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, and occupation, or other characteristic listed as specified.

Existing law requires that when adopting instructional materials for use in the schools, governing boards of school districts shall include materials that accurately portray the role and contributions of culturally and racially diverse groups including Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups to the total development of California and the United States.

This bill would revise the list of culturally and racially diverse groups to also include Pacific Islanders, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, and persons with disabilities.

Existing law provides that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of specified characteristics in any operation of alternative schools or charter schools.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that alternative and charter schools take notice of the provisions of this bill in light of provisions of existing law that prohibit discrimination in any aspect of their operation.

This bill also would make other technical, nonsubstantive changes