Jewish World Review Feb. 22, 2008 / 16 Adar I 5768

Bet You Didn't Know

By Greg Crosby

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The holidays are a busy time, so there's a pretty good chance that you weren't aware of a new California state bill which was passed a few months back and took effect last month. Better sit down for this one, it's a doozy! On October 12th Govern-ator Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law California Senate Bill 777. That bill eliminates Education Code 212, which defines "sex" as "the biological condition or quality of being a male or female human being."

In effect the bill redefines the term "gender" for all schoolchildren by adding Educational Code 210.7, which will read: "'Gender' means sex, and includes a person's gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether of not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth." In other words, it is a redefinition of gender that says you are whatever you choose to be regardless of your anatomical make-up. It tells kids that just because you are born a little girl or little boy, that doesn't mean you are.

Public schools have been teaching cultural, social, and moral relativism for years. Now they'll be promoting sexual relativism too. All lifestyles are equally wonderful. All sexual orientation is equally wonderful. If you're a little boy, but you want to be like your sister - well, go for it. Dress like her. That's okay.

The ridiculous law has effectively banned use of the terms "mom" and "dad" from California schools. The reason? Using those terms promotes a discriminatory bias against alternative lifestyle parents. I never thought I'd live to see the day when "mommy" and "daddy" would be considered bad words. All kinds of vulgarity and foul language are just fine in these modern, progressive times - but you better not say "mom" and "dad!" That's wrong! What country am I living in anyway?

It's important to understand that this stuff will be taught to all children in the public school system beginning in kindergarten! Indoctrinating five and six year-olds to favor sodomy as a healthy and normal lifestyle choice has rankled some parents to say the least. Various Christian grassroots organizations have now joined together in calling for an "exodus" from the California public school system. The coalition includes Eagle Forum, the Campaign for Children and Families, and Exodus Mandate, as well as ten others.

Phyllis Schlafly, President of Eagle Forum, in an interview with Christian Newswire said the following, "Many of us have worked to reform public schools. Unfortunately, SB 777 and the related legislation represent a repudiation of 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching on human sexuality, marriage, and the family. The result is that California's schools are now promoting behaviors and lifestyles that are physically and spiritually dangerous for children. Consequently, in California, parents must try to find alternatives to the public schools."

Randy Thomasson, chief of the Campaign for Children and Families, is one of those who originally called for an abandonment of public schools. "First, the law allowed public schools to voluntarily promote homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality," Thomasson said. "Then the law required public schools to accept homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual teachers as role models for impressionable children. Now the law has been changed to effectively require the positive portrayal of homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality to six million children in California government-controlled schools. To rescue their children, loving parents need to find an alternative to government schools, and every church needs to make it a priority to help parents be in charge of their children's education again."

Alternative lifestyle groups claim that all they want is the end of discriminatory bias. Officials with the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and the Transgender Law Center already have outlined what they believe to be nondiscriminatory treatment in the school system. "If you want to use a restroom that matches your gender identity … you should be allowed to do so," the groups advise. "Whenever students are divided up into boys and girls, you should be allowed to join the group or participate in the program that matches your gender identity as much as possible."

Further, the groups advise, "If you change your name to one that better matches your gender identity, a school needs to use that name to refer to you." Get it? Take your choice. Who do you feel like being today - Max or Maxine? The advocacy group also warns schools against bringing parents into any such discussion with students. Yeah, keep those parents out of this by all means. It takes a village, not parents.

This is not about having tolerance for others. This goes way beyond that. This is not just tolerating, or accepting those who may be different from us - this is about promoting alternative lifestyles and selling the idea to young impressionable children without parents having a say in it. That's the deal. So, if you desire a good, solid, sensible education for your kids without state indoctrination better think about getting them out of the California school system, but quick. And that, as Robert Blake used to say, is the name of that tune.