Petrelis Files

LAT: Say No to Pols Pushing
Gay Ed Bill in Sacramento

Friday marks three days since the Senate Judiciary Committee in Sacramento voted 3-2 to endorse SB 48, a gay education bill authored by Mark Leno.

While many gays, myself included, view that vote on Tuesday as a good development because we are basically supportive of the legislation, the folks at Equality California have remained steadfast in their silence on their site about the bill moving forward.

While EQCA's leaders for some odd reason think silence is best about this bill and the controversies surrounding it, the editors at the Los Angeles Times have plenty to say against SB 48. None of it positive.

Care to wager money that our lying adversaries will seize upon the liberal LA Times coming out and opposing the bill, and will use the column to maximum affect to try and kill the bill? Can't say that I blame them.

I wonder how EQCA and other fabulous A-gays with wealth will counter the editorial. Maybe another invitation-only going-away party for one of their own, as he leaves EQCA for a job with Freedom to Marry, like the fancy soiree held in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening at a dazzling home?

One thing's for sure. Los Angeles-based Karen Ocamb will not be asking any hard and tough questions of this crowd about SB 48, problems with EQCA, or lack of democratic engagement with the grassroots.

She's way too cozy with these folks to jeopardize access by writing journalism that doesn't gush over them and their parties. EQCA and A-gays must love knowing they can reliably count on Karen for fawning coverage and pix like these, and that she is not about to challenge their rotten, stinking status quo.

From Friday's LA Times's editorial titled "Gays in textbooks: Best told by historians, not politicians":

Politicians don't write good textbooks, and they shouldn't try. That's true in Texas, where conservatives on the state Board of Education ordered up changes in history books, ...

It's also true in California, where liberals in the Legislature are pushing a bill that would require textbooks to include, according to Times reporter Patrick McGreevy, "the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans." A similar bill was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

Does the idea have a better chance five years later, with Jerry Brown as governor? We hope not. ...

That's not to say textbooks shouldn't address the struggle against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Though there is still a long way to go, gays and lesbians have made huge gains in recent decades and are now making history with their quest for full marriage rights. These battles no doubt have a legitimate place in the social studies curriculum. But that's a decision for educators and textbook writers to make. ...