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A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation.

Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has not said publicly whether he supports the bill, which he has 12 days to sign or veto once it reaches his desk later this month. If he takes no action, the measure would become law automatically.

The bill gained final passage from the state Assembly on a vote of 49-25, without a single Republican supporting it. The measure cleared the state Senate in April.

California already requires public schools to teach the contributions made to society by women and by racial and ethnic groups that were historically discriminated against, such as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.

Supporters of the latest bill said it would simply include gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals in that existing requirement, making it part of the curriculum in history and other social studies classes.

The group, which supported the bill, said no other state has passed similar legislation requiring the teaching of gay and lesbian contributions to society.

In fact, Laub pointed to a bill that passed the Tennessee state Senate this year that would prohibit the state's schools from teaching about homosexuality before secondary school.

The Tennessee proposal, which detractors have nicknamed the "don't say gay bill," has still not passed the state House of Representatives.

California Assemblyman Donald Wagner is one of the Republicans who opposed the state's bill requiring teaching about the accomplishments of gays and lesbians.

"Writing these provisions into textbooks will further an agenda rather than teach facts," Wagner said. "When we do things, we politicize them because that's the nature of politics. We should leave education to the educators."

The bill was written by state Senator Mark Leno, an openly gay Democrat who represents San Francisco and surrounding communities.

Even if the bill is signed by the governor, it could be several years before California students start reading in textbooks about gay accomplishments.

The California Department of Education has said that, because of the fiscal crisis facing the state, the agency does not expect to adopt new textbooks until 2015.

just one question. have homosexuals REALLY contributed that much to making america, america? i dunno, i just have a hard time equating sexual preference with something like skin color of gender.

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From what it sounds like I expect it'll probably be taught as a civil rights movement.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
From what it sounds like I expect it'll probably be taught as a civil rights movement.

is that fair though? considering what blacks went through before and during the original civil rights movement? i mean i know they've been discriminated against, but not in a way similar to the way blacks were treated. why? because there's a difference between someone's skin color, and who they choose to lay down with, imo.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
From what it sounds like I expect it'll probably be taught as a civil rights movement.

is that fair though? considering what blacks went through before and during the original civil rights movement? i mean i know they've been discriminated against, but not in a way similar to the way blacks were treated. why? because there's a difference between someone's skin color, and who they choose to lay down with, imo.

A lot of people have been beaten or killed for being gay.  Many gay men go through hell growing up because of a trait they were born with.  Many are beat regularly as children because of it.  The entire Prop 8 campaign was based on how the evil fags are going to destroy good Christian families.  Prior to the 1970's it was illegal for a homosexual to engage in any form of sex in any state, and until the Supreme Court struck down the sodomy laws 2003 it was still illegal in several states (including most of the South).  This may not be as bad as fearing the Klan may show up on your door step or being forced to attend different schools, but the violence and social ostracization that is endured is horrid.

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i dunno, i just haven't seen firehoses turned on homosexuals or police dogs let loose on gay pride paraders. and i still don't buy that it's something someone is born with. it's just a sexual preference, and science hasn't been able to prove otherwise. i mean i'm no homophobe, but there doesn't seem to be a system wide movement to keep homosexuals as second class citizens.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
i dunno, i just haven't seen firehoses turned on homosexuals or police dogs let loose on gay pride paraders. and i still don't buy that it's something someone is born with. it's just a sexual preference, and science hasn't been able to prove otherwise. i mean i'm no homophobe, but there doesn't seem to be a system wide movement to keep homosexuals as second class citizens.

Like I said, the treatment of homosexuals is bad, but not nearly as bad as how blacks were treated.  As for being kept as second class citizens, like I pointed out in my last post, until Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 it was illegal for a homosexual to engage in any form of sexual activity in 14 states on pain of imprisonment (in some states repeat offenders could face life in prison).  Prior to 1970 most states had these laws banning any form of homosexual sexuality under similar punishment.  In Texas, Montana, Oklahoma, and Kansas homosexuality is still illegal and punishable by imprisonment.  In some states known homosexuals have historically been denied suffrage or other state benefits like drivers licenses in addition to risk of imprisonment and/or fine.  Hows that, in addition to violence and social isolation, for being treated as second class citizens?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodomy_laws_in_the_United_States
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/13/texas-republicans-gay-rights-homosexual-conduct-law-_n_848580.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas http://www.newser.com/story/116298/why-is-homosexual-conduct-still-illegal-in-texas.html
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/03/texas-kansas-montana-oklahoma-states-hold-onto-laws-defining-gay-conduct-illegal/

As for how one becomes a homosexual, from what I see the consensus is that sexual preference is biologically controlled, or in other words one is born homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual (Gavrilets and Rice, 2006; Hamer et al, 1993).  Look it up on Google Scholar, there are several articles.

Informal Citations:

Gavrilets, S. and Rice, W. 2006.  Genetic models of homosexuality: generating testable predictions.  Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences. v. 273 n. 1605 p. 3031-3038 .   http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1605/3031.full

Hamer, D., Hu, S., Magnuson, V., Hu, N., and Pattacucci, A., 1993.  A linkage between DNA markers on the X chromosome and male sexual orientation.  Science.  V. 261 N. 5119 P. 321-327. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/261/5119/321.short

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation.

I should really stop trying to speed-read posts like this - I read this first time as "what supporters call a FIST for the nation".....

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Isnt California in danger of going broke already?  Arent their taxes so high right now that many people and businesses moving out of the state?  And now they want to implement this new program in State schools?  At what cost to the taxpayer?  And are they going to ask the rest of the country to bail them out when they go belly-up?

The folks out there should get what they deserve.  And dont come to the rest of us when it blows up in their face and they go broke.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
Isnt California in danger of going broke already?  Arent their taxes so high right now that many people and businesses moving out of the state?  And now they want to implement this new program in State schools?  At what cost to the taxpayer?  And are they going to ask the rest of the country to bail them out when they go belly-up?

The folks out there should get what they deserve.  And dont come to the rest of us when it blows up in their face and they go broke.

From what Dod's article said it wouldn't cost the state much of anything as it won't be implemented until the state selects new text books in several years (something that will happen either way).

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why do we even need to devote classroom time to this? should we devote a few classes to discussing the accomplishments of polygamists as well? this whole thing just smacks of an agenda to me. how has america been shaped by homosexuals, the same way it has by real minorities? to me, this is just as silly as having a semester devoted to the accomplishments of heterosexuals.

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
to me, this is just as silly as having a semester devoted to the accomplishments of heterosexuals.

They already have that though, it's just called "history class" :-P

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Originally Posted by Kieran Colfer:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
to me, this is just as silly as having a semester devoted to the accomplishments of heterosexuals.

They already have that though, it's just called "history class" :-P

exactly, but it's not taught through the prism of heterosexuality.

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Any way you look at this, its another case of activists trying to normalize the lifestyle by indoctrinating the kids.  I've already posted quotes where activists admit they are trying to turn people gay.  They actually said that and that they are committed to pushing educational programs that force elementary age kids to complete.

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Originally Posted by Dennis Young:
Any way you look at this, its another case of activists trying to normalize the lifestyle by indoctrinating the kids.  I've already posted quotes where activists admit they are trying to turn people gay.  They actually said that and that they are committed to pushing educational programs that force elementary age kids to complete.

Just like they indoctrinated the kids to not hate black people?

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Apples and oranges man. People cant help what color they are.  They can help being straight or gay.  I dont care if they tell ya otherwise.