Petrelis Files

LAT: Anti-Gay-Ed Letters 'Flood' Pols;
Equality California Omitted

Check out a terrific piece in today's Los AngelesTimes by Patrick McGreevy about SB 48, the Mark Leno-sponsored gay education bill pending before the California legislature. SB 48 is the bill Equality California is not engaging the community over, and the group has no plans to make a proud visible presence at the next hearing for the legislation on April 5.

The LA Times lays out the intricacies of the proposed law, who supports or opposes it in, and which side in the cultural wars is winning the "flood the politicians with letters" race, bolding mine:

But lawmakers have been flooded with letters of opposition from groups including the California Catholic Conference, the First Southern Baptist Church and the Thousand Oaks Christian Fellowship. ...

Good luck trying to locate in the LA Times any gay community mobilization referenced other than Leno flapping his jaw. The now-retired director of EQCA, Geoff Kors, is not quoted and the organization is totally absent from the story. EQCA's engagement is so lame McGreevy has nothing to report on it. In short, the No on Prop 8 game plan still dictates EQCA's strategy.

A letter from an adversary gets space:

"This is all absurd," said a letter from several religious leaders, including Arland Steen, a pastor for the Thousand Oaks group. "At a time when our state lacks dollars to pay for the current needs in education, this Legislature is actually considering adding more financial burden on schools to pay for new textbooks that will teach so-called gay history."

There is no comparable pro-gay letter excerpted by the LA Times. So, we have opponents outnumbering us in a previous hearing on SB, the legislative analysis tells us they have sent in more letters than us, a fact now reported in the mainstream press, and as I have been reporting, no plan from Leno and EQCA to mobilize us. Gayja vu all over again.

I have no idea if the bill will pass the legislative process, but if it does, it will have come without the emotional and political buy-in from a wide cross-section of our community, and that is not healthy. Sure, make the school books inclusive of our lives and struggles, but also involve us every step of the damn way.

Over at Karen Ocamb's EQCA-co-opted LGBT POV blog, she ignores the evidence piling up about political organizing malpractice underway at the organization.

It's not enough that she's run the most glowing, gushing pieces on EQCA's history, and essays from lots of lawyers and Gay Inc folks asking nothing more of the group than singing Kumbaya around the next EQCA awards ceremony. Karen today has to run dozens of pix of Kors' time as director. Watchdogging, not lapdogging is needed.

I'll end on an up note, and say thanks to the LA Times and McGreevy for telling the gays some cold, hard truth. Their coverage today is well appreciated by me.