Measure would add gay history to texts

[NCOutdoors]

More craziness from Kookafornia. I think I'm fairly tolerant but WTF??



Measure would add gay history to texts

By Jordan Rau
Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO, Calif. "” Saying that more role models could help alleviate the social estrangement and high suicide rates of gay and lesbian students, the California Senate voted Thursday to teach the historical contributions of homosexuals in the United States.

If approved by the state Assembly and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the measure, the first of its kind nationwide, could once again stake out California in the vanguard on gay rights. California's Legislature last year became the first to authorize gay marriage, but Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure. Schwarzenegger has not taken a public position on the textbook bill.

California is a huge portion of the textbook market, where it often sets trends, and many publishers put out a specific edition for the state that others can also use.

Textbooks meeting the bill's requirements would not be incorporated into California classrooms until 2012. Social science courses would then include "an age-appropriate study" of the "role and contributions" that lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people have made to the "economic political and social development" of California and the United States.

Schools are already required to teach the historical and social roles of blacks, women, American Indians, Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic groups.

"Even though we passed an anti-harassment bill seven years ago, it's still pretty obvious that there's a hostile environment for kids who are gay or lesbian "” or even thought to be gay or lesbian," said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, the bill's author and one of six openly gay legislators. "Part of that stems from the fact that nobody reads about any positive examples."

Advocates said subjects might include the history of the civil-rights movement and the 1978 assassination of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, and textbooks could specify the sexual orientation of such well-known Americans as authors Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin and Willa Cather.

Republican Sen. Bill Morrow called the bill dangerous and insidious because it lumps sexual orientation "” something he said was a "cultural or behavioral lifestyle" "” together with race and sex, which are biological.

Conservative groups decried the Senate's action. "Happy Mothers Day, California," said a statement issued by Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a Sacramento group.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...11_gays12.html

[Aught Six]

Yeah, adding a reference to some 'gay role model' in a text bookwill solve everyone's psychological problems.

Liberals are hopeless. Let them drown in their own political vomit for all I care. We just need to keep it away from the rest of America, you know, those of us who don't need a text book to go on with our lives.

[Tazman]

What will be next, Prominent pedophiles of the last 100 years? Famous bestialitist in History? Historical contributions to society of serial killers?

History is History, the depth one gets into it should depend upon what level of education you are in, not what group or agenda you wish to promote.

[BenGarrett]

Well good for them. California needs another cause to champion in order to feel good about themselves. They're on the highway to hell at breakneck speeds that far exceed anywhere else. As long as they aren't representing the rest of America, they can make it mandatory for eligible bachelors and bachelorettes to evenly split their courtships between those of the same gender as well as the opposite gender, for all I care (actually, that may not be too far-fetched for Kookifornia).

Public school history curricula isn't true history anyway; if you wade through the bias and attempts to rewrite history, you can derive a pretty good idea for yourself of what happened as the world was progressing. Unfortunately, California doesn't hold the patent on rewriting or slanting history. Ever read the accounts of the Civil War in your school texts?

Of course I'd rather see the good name of the South dragged through the mud as to read about a bunch of homos, just to be honest with you.

[Deleted User]

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[Canuck_Buck]

ok, like, this is like, soooooooooo gay !....[:'(]

[kevin1]

The only thing I need to know about someone's place in history is the deed(s) that got them there , how many pickles they puffed has no place in a textbook any more than how many dogs they owned .

[hntngirl]

Man, I wish there was a way to move the state of Oregon. Being this close gives me the creeps.

[Arnold Shortzinvader]

Our illustrious governator will "tuhminate" this policy. His muscular perfectitude will triumph over all.

[Big Red Porkers]

I thought the Romans were in the history books ? They indulged in all of that and more