Thursday, December 29, 2011

Reason #99: Textbooks


Along with a plethora of other laws set to go into effect at the start of the new year is SB 48, a California bill that, for the first time in the nation's history, mandates the teaching of LGBT history in a positive, civil-rights context, and prohibits the use of educational materials that reflect negatively on people due to their orientation (which seems to me to be kind of the same thing, but hey, whatever works).

Supporters say that aside from being more, y'know, accurate, the new textbooks will inculcate a better understanding of LGBT issues among young people (surprisingly, no minimum grade level is included for when the changes should be put in place) and cut down on the kind of anti-gay bullying that's become infamous across the country.

And just to make the law's opponents (who have tried and failed to get rid of the law once already) seem extra evil, I should mention that it puts the same rules in place for disabled people, as well. Which actually seems sort of weird to me, because it's not like FDR's been getting less attention in history books because he was in a wheelchair. But again - whatever works.

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