Religious groups challenge rights bill
CITYWIDE A battle is brewing in the state capital, a philosophical tug-of-war between gay rights advocates and faith-based organizations over a soon-to-be enacted law that would amend a state law regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation in schools.
The California Education Code currently bans discrimination in the private and public schools based on a person’s sex, ethnicity, group identification, race, national origin, religion and mental or physical disability. A new law, authored by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, would clarify that protected list to include essentially any characteristic listed in the definition of hate crimes, including disability, gender and sexual orientation.
The source of controversy — drawing fire from faith-based organizations that oppose the measure — is the inclusion of the term “sexual orientation,” with opponents criticizing the measure as being unconstitutional and taking power away from administrators at the school district level. The changes are outlined in the “Student Civil Rights Act,” which is set to take effect next month. The bill has already been signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Kuehl was not available for comment on Tuesday.
The Capitol Resource Institute, a Sacramento-based organization that defends family-friendly state policies, launched a pet project — Save Our Kids — to combat SB 777 and hope to put the issue to the voters in the upcoming June election. Volunteers with CRI are in the midst of collecting the more than 275,000 petitions that have been circulating since late October and expect to exceed the 430,000 validated signatures that are required to put the referendum on the ballot.
“People will agree these are policies and teaching instruction issues that need to be dealt with at the local level when it comes to this sensitive issue,” said Karen England, the executive director of CRI. “I think the average Californian... doesn’t want San Francisco values forced on every school district in the state.”
Discrimination based on sexual orientation might seem less prevalent in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, where the two municipalities are considered to be more progressive. But Oscar de la Torre, the vice president of the Board of Education, believes homophobia, just like sexism and racism, is not less of an issue in the district. Education on discriminatory issues is still necessary in the school district, he said.
“We do live in a conservative country, for the most part,” de la Torre said. “There are places like Santa Monica and San Francisco, some pockets of relief for individuals who are not heterosexual.”
The school board member said he doesn’t see any controversy with integrating awareness into the school curriculum, adding that the district has in the past led efforts to educate students about other “isms.”
“I don’t see where the problem would be in integrating into the curriculum information that would decrease the stigma of being a different sexual orientation,” de la Torre said.
The Save Our Kids camp argues the new law would change classroom instruction, making it illegal to educate students about the traditional family because the bill specifically bans any activity that “promotes a discriminatory bias.”
The state is also facing a legal battle from another religious coalition. The Advocates for Faith and Freedom filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of SB 777, calling it “unconstitutionally vague” and violating the privacy of all students and anyone on school campuses.
A sore spot for the coalition seems to be the defining of the term “gender”to include sex and a person’s “gender identity and gender related appearance,” regardless of whether the identity is the person’s actual sex at birth.
The definition will cause confusion among school administrators, unsure of whether they’re violating the law when separating the boys and girls restrooms, according to the lawsuit.
“What will prevent the 250-pound linebacker from deciding he wants to share the locker room with the cheerleaders,” Robert Tyler, general counsel for Advocates for Faith and Freedom said in a statement last week. “If implemented, this bill will have disastrous effects in our school system.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 5, 2007. Read the original PDF.