SB 1437 moved through the California State Senate Education Committee yesterday, and now advances to the Senate floor. The bill would require that the contributions of gays and lesbians be described and acknowledged in school textbooks in order to validate the sexual minority status of some students. California is the nation's largest school textbook market, and if the bill becomes law, the effects would likely be felt in other states, too.

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.

Opponents say the bill will turn schools into "sexual indoctrination centers" and complain it takes away the discretion of local school boards in deciding what's best in the classroom....Karen England, executive director of the Capital Resource Institute, said discussion about sexual orientation belongs "in the bedroom, not in the classroom" and that sexual orientation is not germane to a person's historical significance. "I care about their accomplishments. I don't care who they slept with," England told the committee.

Before someone calls me homophobic, I'll say what I've said before: Tolerance - a word I pretty much loathe - is not only appropriate toward gays and lesbians, it is essential. You may or may not approve of their sexual orientation, but so long as any individual abides by a common code of decency in public, what they do in private is their own business.

But that does not mean using taxpayer resources and school facilities to promote the acceptability of gay sex, or any sexual practices, actually, makes one whit of sense. It doesn't. Simply put, the mandate is a pander too far. It should not be the role of public schools, and textbooks especially, to promote homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism OR heterosexual sex among teens. It is the responsibility of parents, not schools, to impart to their children whatever understanding they wish them to have about alternative sexual identities, and more generally, about sex.

Family values are not the same in every family, but their primacy must be upheld on what are essentially non-state matters such as the values and attitudes of individuals toward different sexual orientations and toward teen sexual activity in general. The premise that schools should be providing "safe sex" instruction, or validation and acceptance to students who may classify themselves as bisexual, gay, lesbian or transgendered, reflects a broader and corrosive societal preoccupation with pre-teen and teen sexuality.

Kids are suppposed to be in school to learn reading, writing, math, science and to begin developing higher-order analytical skills. This is the path to validation in school. Long before alternative sexual identities became a matter for schools, students have had to negotiate social minefields in the hallways and lunchroom. Nothing can ever change that. It is part of the job of parents to give their kids the tools to cope with the social pressures of school, especially high school. If we are to mandate positive acknowledgement in public school textbooks of sometimes maligned minorities such as bisexuals, gays, lesbians and the transgendered, then we'd better also mandate explicit glorification of geeks, stoners and jocks.

TECHNORATI TAGS: GAY, LESBIAN, TEXTBOOKS, CALIFORNIA, STATE SENATE, SB 1437