What Proposition 8 Entails, Part II

What of the effect on education? Section 51890 of the California Education Code requires teachers to instruct children as early as kindergarten about the legal aspects of marriage. The state’s position that same-sex couples are equivalent to opposite-sex couples will in all likelihood require changes in school instruction to ensure that a homosexual relationship is not treated differently from a heterosexual one. We can anticipate that the princess in a children’s story will be as likely to marry another princess as a prince. Differences between sexes will be minimized or ignored. What confusion will that create in the minds of young boys and girls?

If a parent objects to the teaching of homosexual in the public schools, there is probably little he or she will be able to do about it. A federal district court in Massachusetts has ruled that parents may not prevent an elementary school from teaching their kindergarten and first grade children that homosexuality and same-sex marriage are moral and acceptable, even though contrary to the parents’ sincere religious beliefs, and that the parents are not entitled to notice of any such instruction or to opt their children out of it. That decision has been affirmed by the First District Court of Appeals. Incidentally, in that case a first grade student was required to listen to a teacher read the book King and King, a story of a prince who falls in love with and marries another prince. (Parker v Hurley)

In England, a Catholic school has been prohibited from firing an openly gay headmaster. In Quebec, a Mennonite school was informed by the Ministry of Education that it must conform to the official provincial curriculum, including teaching that homosexuality is an acceptable alternative lifestyle, or be shut down. The Mennonites say they will leave the province. A similar government position can be anticipated here.

A loss of free speech rights is likely. In Canada, the Alberta Human Rights Commission issued a ruling forbidding a Christian pastor from making “disparaging” remarks about homosexuality. Expect the same in California.

Opponents of Proposition 8 says the public to discard the wisdom of centuries by giving official approval to same-sex marriage. But at what price? The mere fact that a practice is old may not make it right but neither does it make it wrong. We have already witnessed the loss of important rights, and recent history suggests that defeat of the proposition will bring others.

Let us hope for the triumph of reason over emotion.
– William T. Garner, Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, Retired

“I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”
– Abraham Lincoln