Foes of a California law which mandates
schools teach about the historical contributions of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender people conceded on Monday that they have
failed to qualify a ballot measure which would have repealed the law.
Senate Bill 48 (SB48) or the FAIR
Education Act, sponsored by state Senator Mark Leno, a
Democrat from San Francisco, took effect in January and requires that
the California Board of Education and local school districts include
the curriculum in their lesson plans.
Opponents of the law had until Monday
to collect the signatures of 504,760 registered voters to qualify for
the 2014 statewide ballot.
“While boxes of signed petitions are
still being delivered to locations throughout the State, the
coalition that promoted the Children Learning Accurate Social Science
(CLASS) Act is projecting today that they will fall short of the more
than 500,000 signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the 2014
ballot,” the Pacific Justice Institute said in an e-mail to
supporters.
“Placing a measure on the ballot
through grassroots efforts alone has not been done in California in
recent memory. Although history was against us, our conscience
compelled the coalition to fight this battle rather than doing
nothing,” said Kevin Snider, chief counsel to Pacific Justice
Institute.
An earlier attempt by the group to put
the law to a popular vote also did not qualify.