News Update

SB 1437 Passed by Senate Education Committee,
Heads to Senate Floor

California Teachers Speaking Out in Opposition!

Dear Friend of the Family,

As expected, the Senate Education Committee on a straight party line vote (with all the Democrats voting for it and all the Republicans voting against it) sent SB 1437 to the full Senate for a vote. United Families California’s Education Coordinator, Susan Schnell, spoke in opposition to the bill at the committee hearing today. That hearing, by the way, was all too typical. Those witnesses supporting the bill got the majority of the time and several of the Democratic senators were unacceptably rude and dismissive of several of the witnesses opposing SB 1437.

As more and more Californian parents and grandparents are becoming aware of this outrageous bill they are flooding senate offices with e-mails, letters and phone calls opposing it (See a summary of the bill here). Thousands of voters are sending an e-mail through the special feature on our Web site that allows them to express their opposition to SB 1437 to all of our senators with just the click of their mouse. If you have not already joined them, please do so. It takes just a couple of minutes. Click here.

If it passes, SB 1437 will force our public schools to indoctrinate children with pro-homosexual, pro-bisexual and pro-transgender lessons, reading material and activities. By law, the negative and undesirable facts and aspects of these sexual behaviors and lifestyles could not be taught, making a mockery of the educational mission of our schools.

UNLESS enough of us make our opposition known loud and clear, SB 1437 WILL PASS!

As we at United Families California have been working to alert Californians about this irresponsible, bad and dangerous bill, we have received feedback and expressions of concern and warning from a number of California school teachers. They are the ones who would be on the front lines if this bill passes and they are the best judges of how it would be implemented and the damage it will do.

All California parents concerned about their children’s education should read what these teachers are saying. I have posted excerpts from some of their letters and e-mails below. Their words should be an urgent wake up call to every parent and grandparent who does not want to see their children or grandchildren subjected to the kind of dangerous and inappropriate sexual indoctrination that this bill will require in our classrooms.

If you or those on your e-mail list have not already e-mailed our state senators through the special feature we have set up on our Web site, I hope the comments of these teachers will be enough to motivate you to do so.

Also, please help us spread the word. The easiest way to do this is to simply forward this alert on to everyone on your e-mail list you think might also voice their opposition to this bill.

Thanks to the thousands of you who have already responded and e-mailed, called or written you our senators. We ARE making a difference but we need to keep up the pressure!

Sincerely,

Meredith Richey

President, United Families California

P.S. You can help even more by making a tax-deductible contribution to support our efforts. You can easily and safely do this on line or you can print out a form to send a contribution by mail. Click here to contribute.

What Some California Teachers are Saying about SB 1437
and Its Impact on Our Children

“If required to teach these concepts I feel I would be required to surrender my California credential and to take my aquired skills into the private sector or into another state which demonstrates a better understanding of public education.

Our children and their schools are not a battle ground for a public debate and they are not a fulcrum for political leverage. Just because a group of people cannot win the debate in a public forum does not give them the right to force their ideas on California's youth in an attempt to modify the society”

-High School teacher

“I have relatives, friends, and co-workers who are gay. It is none of my business what their practices are and none of theirs what mine are. Why do the sponsers of this bill want to bring private practices into the classroom? Have you ever been a classroom of 13-14 year old boys and girls when you are talking about sex education? If you have, there is NO way you would be supporting this bill. If you support the bill and have not been in a classroom, then it is YOUR DUTY to make the arrangements needed to sit in a classroom and see what takes place. It may open your eyes to the “real world” and not the make- believe place you may think it is.”

-Middle school teacher

“…, many of us do not want to teach the materiall that would be expected of us in this bill. We disagree with the content and find it difficult to approach the subject matter with both our students and our families. The public schools is not the place for such instruction. The welfare of the whole system needs to be considered. Parents may resort to private schools or homeschooling which would then take more away from our public schools.”

-4th grade teacher

“The curriculum changes that (this bill) proposes are unnecessary, unjustified, and unconstitutional. If this bill were to pass, I feel that I would not be able to teach the material required by it. As a teacher, my goal is to educate kids, not to indoctrinate them. I worry about where the California education system is headed.”

-Teacher, grade not specified

Summary of SB 1437

SB 1437 - Changes the State Education code "relating to prohibited instruction" and adds a radical sexual orientation indoctrination program

This bill would prohibit schools from doing anything that can in any way be considered as adversely reflecting on any individual based on their perceived "gender" or "sexual orientation." Included would be any curriculum, text books or school sponsored activities. The term "gender" is defined as "real or perceived" and "sexual orientation" is not well defined. As a result, the schools would be forced to teach school children that all forms of sexual behavior are normal and acceptable, that gender is not important in raising children, that all forms of "family" are equal and that gender is not physically defined but merely a "social construct." This will not only undermine the prevailing norms and values of society generally but also the values and religious teaching many parents are attempting to instill in their children.

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United Families California • PO Box 7653 • La Verne, CA 91750-7653