In Massachusetts, a handful of parents are suing a school board because a second-grade teacher read a book to her class called "King & King," about a prince who doesn't like any of the princesses and decides to marry another prince. The parents believe this is the first step of indoctrinating children in immorality. "My son is only 7 years old," parent Robin Wirthlin said. "By presenting this kind of issue at such a young age, they're trying to indoctrinate our children. They're intentionally presenting this as a norm, and it's not a value that our family supports." The suit says the school violated a state law which requires parental notification if sex education is being taught.
The thing is, the book doesn't delve into sex any more than "Rapunzel" does. It's merely a picture book that happens to be about two princes falling for each other and marrying. This is clearly an attempt to marginalize gay relationships and make sure they maintain second-class status. Let's hope the court hearing this suit sees it that way.
On the other side of the country, California is considering a law requiring that the accomplishments of gay people be included in history textbooks. State law now requires that "men, women, black Americans, American Indians, Mexicans, Asians, Pacific Island people and other ethnic groups" be included in textbook descriptions of "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." In that context, I don't have a problem with adding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to the list.
However, my problem is that there shouldn't be a law like this at all. The criteria for getting into a history book should be, oh, I don't know...making history?
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