GLBT Cirriculum Passed--And Needed--In California

From the Christian Post:

The California Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would prohibit all classes, textbooks, and teachers from any instruction that "reflects or promotes bias against GLBT people.

Not everyone is happy:

"SB 777 is designed to transform our public schools into institutions that disregard all notions of the traditional family unit," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), in a statement. "This reverse discrimination is an outright attack on the religious and moral beliefs of California citizens."

Fine. The CRI would probably prefer keeping this status quo:

From the Boston Edge newspaper:

A new study shows that anti-gay prejudice is rampant in America’s middle schools, making bias the norm, rather than the exception, and adding urgency to what has become recognized as a need to educate children about bullying and to enforce zero-tolerance anti-bullying policies.

The study, titled A Voice from the Middle, was released by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and Phi Delta Kappa International. The report reveals that 77 percent of middle schoolers believe that their classmates have a negative attitude toward people they think are gays or lesbians; 26 percent of middle schoolers went so far as to say that their classmates have a "very negative" attitude.

"This survey, like so many before it, illustrates the difficulties lesbian, gay and bisexual students experience in school," said Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network Founder and Executive Director Kevin Jennings. "

The Christian Post article mentions the fear of "normalizing homosexuality." Obviously the right wing benefits from GLBT people being considered "abnormal" and want to bring up the next generation with only negative impressions of homosexuality.

As a youngster, I went through some of the early teaching of African-American culture and, not coincidentally, gained a better understanding of their issues and learned acceptance at an early age. Civil rights for African-Americans just seemed to make sense since they were people like me.

The same truth applies to the GLBT community, but social conservatives don't want people to learn that. It would diminish their political power and reduce the number of people willing to financially support their bigotry and hatred.

Fortunately, legislatures across the nation have taken action similar to what California has done, mandating teaching acceptance of ALL people.