Calif Committee OKs bill to add gays, lesbians to textbooks

Little by little (despite the RW dissing).

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/05/04/BAG5HIKCCI1.DTL
CALIFORNIA

Committee OKs bill to add gays, lesbians to textbooks
Hotly debated measure heads to state Senate

Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Thursday, May 4, 2006


Sacramento -- After a sometimes emotional debate centering on discrimination and sexual orientation, a Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would require that the contributions of gays and lesbians be included in textbooks.

Supporters argued that all students should be made aware of the role that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have made, but state curriculum has no such requirement.

Opponents countered that discussion of sexual orientation should occur at home and not be mandated in schools.

Not requiring that gays be included in instructional materials creates the "enforced invisibility that so many minority groups have gone through in terms of their contributions to California history," Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, told the Senate Education Committee in support of her bill.

The committee approved the bill, SB1437, on a party line 8-3 vote. It now moves to the Senate floor.

Kuehl's measure has attracted national attention because California represents about 12 percent of the nation's textbook market.

State law already prohibits discrimination based on race, color and gender, among other things, in textbooks. The bill would bar textbooks from discriminating against gays.

It also orders school boards to use instructional material that reflects the "sexual diversity" of society and include the contributions of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

...Tennesee Williams, Jane Addams, Oscar Wilde, or the composer Samuel Barber, and that they were gay people who overcame all prejudice against them to give us great works and a great legacy.

And scientists, and mathematicians, and philosophers, and explorers, and all the gay and lesbian historical figures. It humanizes and recognizes the contributions of these extrordinary people.

About time.