Under the radar

While the news media focused on immigration last week, California Democrats focused on completing the transmutation of public-school social science curricula into a punctuated series of pro-homosexuality tracts. On May 3, the state Senate education committee held hearings on SB 1437, a bill that would require K-12 students to study the contributions of "people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society."

SB 1437 would also prohibit textbooks, materials, or activities that "reflect adversely" on gays and lesbians and nix the inclusion of "any sectarian or denominational doctrine or propaganda contrary to law."

In plain language: Only tolerant portrayals of homosexuals allowed; religious dissent will not be tolerated.

While the national conversation has this year focused on soaring gas prices, border security, and digging for presidential scandal, the gay agenda is marching on. Homosexual activists "now are working under the radar," said Robert Knight, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Culture and Family Institute (CFI), an affiliate of Concerned Women for America.

He may be right: The passage this year in several jurisdictions of laws and ordinances extending protected-minority status to gays, lesbians, and transsexuals registered barely a blip on the national media screen:

Socially conservative attorneys, activists, and legislators WORLD interviewed all used the same word to describe the current climate of the gay-rights movement: "Relentless."

To homosexual activists, "there is no such thing as defeat, only temporary setbacks," said David French, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based public-interest law firm. "And their ideology is all-encompassing . . . occupying the place in life that faith occupies in the lives of many Christians. So they are relentless and their activism is present in almost every area of life."

As an example, he cites "Safe Space," a tax-funded "training" course currently under legal challenge at Georgia Tech. In addition to presenting Kinseyan myths about the prevalence of homosexuality, the course teaches as fact that the behavior is healthy and natural, and that those who disagree are caving to peer pressure and also engaging in "oppression" on par with racism and anti-Semitism.

In California, the homosexual lawmakers who formed the nation's first gay legislative caucus "come up with new [pro-gay] regulations on every conceivable topic," said State Senator Dick Ackerman, who leads the chamber's Republican minority. "Most of them pass on party-line votes with Democrats supporting and Republicans opposing."

Statehouse observers expect SB 1437 to pass, muscled through by a 25-14 Democratic majority. One likely result of the law would be the revision of all instructional materials relating to marriage and family: For example, those defining marriage as between a husband and wife would be purged-or amended to include portrayals of same-sex marriage.

At the May 3 hearings, SB 1437 supporters said the bill was necessary so that gay students would feel safe and well-represented. Opposition witnesses said the changes would amount to compulsory indoctrination on a controversial issue properly left to parents.

Education committee members didn't buy that argument and passed SB 1437 on an 8-3 party-line vote. The bill now heads to the Senate floor.