Christian conservatives have reacted to
California Governor Jerry Brown signing a controversial gay
history bill into law.
Brown on Thursday signed the measure
which mandates the inclusion of the historical contributions of gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans in the state's textbooks.
Starting as early as the 2013-2014
school year, the FAIR Education Act, sponsored by state
Senator Mark Leno, a Democrat, requires the California Board of
Education and local school districts to include the curriculum in
their lesson plans.
The Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman and
founder of the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), said the bill
“molested” the minds of children.
“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. By signing SB 48 today,
California's classrooms, textbooks and instructional materials will
all become pro-homosexual promotion tools.”
“We are talking about molesting the
minds of young impressionable youth, as young as kindergarten, with
an agenda and message that is not age-appropriate and that is
offensive to the values of a vast majority of California's families.”
Randy Thomassson of the Christian
conservative group Save California added that children will be
“forced” to admire gay people.
“The bill he [Brown] signed prohibits
teachers and textbooks from telling children the facts that
homosexuality has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, higher
cancer rates, and earlier deaths,” Thomasson said in a statement.
“These important facts about lifestyles children will being [sic]
forced to admire will be omitted.”
“This revisionist history will
actually make more children believe a lie – that homosexuality is
biological, which it's not, and healthy, which it isn't.”