BILL ANALYSIS
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1437
Author: Kuehl (D)
Amended: 3/28/06
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 3-1, 4/4/06
AYES: Dunn, Escutia, Kuehl
NOES: Ackerman
NO VOTE RECORDED: Vacancy
SUBJECT : School instruction: prohibition of
discriminatory content
SOURCE : Equality California
DIGEST : This bill revises the statutes prohibiting
textbooks and other instructional material from containing
material adverse to persons based on race, color, creed,
national origin, ancestry, sex, or handicap, and add sexual
orientation to this list of characteristics. These changes
make the statutes consistent with other statutes
prohibiting discrimination based on specified personal
characteristics, such as the Fair Employment and Housing
Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The bill also directs the school governing boards to
include only instructional material that accurately portray
the cultural, racial, gender and sexual diversity of our
society, and, in instructional material for the social
sciences, include the contributions of people who are
CONTINUED
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lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to the economic,
political, and social development of California and the
United States of America.
ANALYSIS :
Existing Law:
1.Provides that no person shall be subjected to
discrimination on the basis of sex, ethnic group
identification, race, national origin, religion, color,
mental or physical disability, or any actual or perceived
characteristic that is contained in the definition of
hate crimes described in Penal Code 422.56 in any
program or activity conducted by an educational
institution that receives or benefits from state
financial assistance or student financial aid. [Ed. Code
220.]
2.Prohibits a teacher from giving instruction or a school
district from sponsoring any activity that reflects
adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color,
creed, handicap, national origin or ancestry. [Ed. Code
51500.]
3.Prohibits the state board or any public school governing
board from adopting any textbook or instructional
materials that contains any matter reflecting adversely
upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed,
handicap, national origin, or ancestry. [Ed. Code
51501, 60044.]
This bill:
1.Changes the references to a person's characteristics to
make them consistent with similar statutes that prohibit
discrimination on the basis of a person's
characteristics.
2.Requires school governing boards, when adopting
instructional materials for use in the schools, to
include only materials which accurately portray the
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gender and sexual diversity, as well as the currently
required cultural and racial diversity of our society,
and materials that portray the contributions of people
who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to the
economic, political, and social development of the state
and the country.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 4/6/06)
Equality California (source)
Asian Americans for Civil Rights & Equality
California Safe Schools Coalition
California Alliance for Arts Education
Gay-Straight Alliance Network
Lambda Letters Project
National Center for Lesbian Rights
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
OPPOSITION : (Verified 4/6/06)
Campaign for Children and Families
Concerned Women For America of California
Traditional Values Coalition
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office states,
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are almost
entirely omitted from textbooks and other instructional
materials in California schools [citing the National School
Climate Survey, GLSEN, 2003, which found that 76.2 percent
of youth reported that lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender issues were never addressed or discussed in
their class]. In the rare instances where lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people are explicitly mentioned in
the classroom or in classroom materials, it is often in
negative terms or in relationship to pathology. The
absence from our curriculum of positive images of lesbian,
gay, bisexual or transgender people and their many
contributions to California and the United States is a
disservice to all children. Silence and biased messages
about lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people only
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promotes negative stereotypes and this, in turn, can lead
to discrimination, harassment, and violence.
In fact, the author's office states, research shows most
hate crime perpetrators, who are in their late teens and
early twenties, believe that they do not violate any social
norms by attacking those they perceive to be gay, lesbian,
bisexual or transgender. This fact exposes students who
are perceived to be or are associated with gays, lesbians,
bisexuals or transgenders in school to violence and
harassment, and places them at greater risk for suicide,
skipping school, drug and alcohol abuse and other
risk-taking behavior, according to that research.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Opponents argue that, "[b]y
proactively teaching about sexual lifestyles of historical
figures, the schools will be implicitly offering those
behaviors as normal to children." They add that
"[a]dopting such a policy would clearly be pandering to a
tiny minority (one to three percent) of the population who
identify with aberrant sexual behavior." (Letter from
Concerned Women for America, dated March 30, 2006.)
In reference to the prohibition against discrimination in
textbook and instructional material that would include
"gender" and "sexual orientation" on the list of
characteristics, the same opponents argue that "SB 1437
flies in the face of parents as it seeks to place the
schools, rather than parents, in control of the moral
attitudes and beliefs of their children. The average
parent would be outraged at alternative sexuality even
being discussed in the classroom. Such topics are the
domain of the home, not the schools."
RJG:do 4/6/06 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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