Foes of a law that mandates schools
teach about the historical contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender people have announced a second attempt to repeal the
law, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Starting as early as the 2013-14 school
year, Senate Bill 48 (SB48) or the FAIR
Education Act, sponsored by state Senator Mark Leno, a
Democrat from San Francisco, requires the California Board of
Education and local school districts to include the curriculum in
their lesson plans.
Two initiatives filed on Wednesday seek
to undo the law's gay history mandate. One would carve out the
inclusion of LGBT people in the law, leaving a mandate for
instruction about people with disabilities standing. The second
would allow parents to opt out of curriculum that conflicts “with
the religious training and beliefs of a parent or guardian.”
Both proposals were submitted by
Richard Rios, the California chairman of the Christian Coalition, on
behalf of the Committee to Repeal SB48 and the Committee for Parental
Rights for Education.
Opponents of the law failed in their
initial attempt to repeal the law. The group Stop SB 48 failed to
collect the signatures of 504,760 registered voters in time to
qualify for the next statewide ballot.