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California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 48 on Thursday,
making California the first U.S. state required to teach students
about the contributions of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders.
Also known as the Fair, Accountable, Inclusive and Respectful
Education Act (FAIR Act), SB 48 was written by self-admitted
homosexual state Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco. The bill passed the
Assembly Education committee on June 22, and on July 5 the state
Assembly sent it through to Gov. Jerry Brown on a 49-25 vote.
“History should be honest,” Brown said in a statement. “This
bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education
and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all
backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books. It
represents an important step forward for our state, and I thank
Senator Leno for his hard work on this historic legislation.”
The California Board of Education is now required by law to create
textbooks and other materials that highlight
the homosexual community’s contributions to the economic, political
and social development of California and the U.S. Daily
Mail reports
that although the bill will take effect in January, textbooks will
not likely be changed until 2015.
The
FAIR Act also requires that textbooks and materials—for students in
kindergarten through 12th grade—must present lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender people, groups and lifestyles in a positive manner.
Nothing negative or perceived to be negative about them can be
presented.
According
to Maryal Boumann, director of Pray California, the law will only
affect public schools and does not apply to private schools,
including church schools and home schooling.
“Today
we are making history in California by ensuring that our textbooks
and instructional materials no longer exclude the contributions of
LGBT Americans,” Leno said. He went on to thank Brown for
recognizing the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.
Although
many in the LGBT community are celebrating, others are angry. The
Traditional Values Coalition, “the largest non-denominational,
grassroots church lobby in America” according to its website, has
made it a priority to squash the bill.
“It is an outrage that
Governor Jerry Brown has opened the classroom door for homosexual
activists to indoctrinate the minds of California’s youth, since no
factual materials would be allowed to be presented,” Rev.
Louis Sheldon, chairman
and founder of TVC,
said in a statement Thursday. “By signing SB 48 today, California’s
classrooms, textbooks and instructional materials will all become
pro-homosexual promotion tools. If parents don’t already have their
children out of public schools, this should cause them to remove
them.”
California parents are not the only ones who need to worry about
the effect this bill will have on their children. As California is
one of the nation’s largest suppliers of textbooks, public school
students in other states are bound to be affected by the FAIR Act.
“I feel sorry for those states because we’ve not done a good job
defending our families and our children, and we have the wrong kind
of people in Sacramento,” Earl DeVries, a former candidate for the
California Senate, told onenewsnow.com. “And this is the
consequence of our lack of involvement.”
DeVries disagreed with Brown’s assertion that the bill is an
important step forward for the state. “Well, it really isn’t,” he
contends. “Of course their ultimate agenda is to normalize
homosexuality, [but] the Lord says that’s wrong. And we are going to
be suffering the consequences of those decisions now.”
Cheri Fuller and Cindy Lamb Curry 
Marilyn Hickey 
Charisma Staff 
