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Pro-gay schools law hit

By Jennifer Kabbany
December 18, 2007

Dale Porth of Escondido, Calif., kept his daughter, Mercy Porth, 13, and his 15-year-old son out of school for a day last month to protest what he considers a pro-homosexual bias in the state's educational system.

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A new law that amends California's education code has many of the state's conservatives in an uproar and taking drastic measures to repeal it, saying the changes go too far in promoting a homosexual agenda in public schools.

The law known as SB 777 is due to take effect in January and forbids any school activity that "promotes a discriminatory bias" on the basis of "gender" or "sexual orientation."

Parents, preachers, conservative lawyers and Sacramento-based pro-family advocacy groups have mounted campaigns against the law in recent weeks, efforts that include pulling children out of school, circulating a referendum petition and filing a lawsuit.

"If this is not repealed, the next step is to get out of California itself — it's like Sodom and Gomorrah," said Pastor Vincent Xavier, one of many church leaders across the state who helped spread the word of a two-day school boycott in late November to protest the law.

The mix of protesters contend the law would allow students to decide whether they are male or female, potentially wreaking "havoc" in campus locker rooms and bathrooms, and bans lessons and any other school activities that are construed as portraying homosexuality negatively.

"People have said enough is enough," said Karen England, executive director of Capital Resource Family Impact, the Sacramento-based nonprofit advocacy group behind the referendum petition. "I think they realize it's gone too far."

At issue is a law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October that proponents say clarifies and streamlines — but does not expand — existing civil rights protections for students spelled out in California's education code.

"There has been no change in California law, none at all," said state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, the Los Angeles Democrat who authored the original bill.

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