Arnold and SB777

To some, the website World Net Daily is known as "World Nut Daily" due to their propensity for, shall we say, sensationalism. This story certainly seemed to fit that bill, at least at first glance:

"Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.

"Mom and Dad" now offensive? Signed by the Terminator? Time for some research. The bill that the Governator signed, SB777, does change the definition of discrimination as it pertains to California public school teachers and textbooks. A few examples:

Existing law prohibits a teacher from giving instruction, and a school district from sponsoring any activity, that reflects adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin, or ancestry.

OK, fine, there was some outdated verbiage in the old one, so it's not surprising they wanted to clean it up. So far so good. The new law changed that verbiage as follows:

disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes set forth in Section 422.55 of the Penal Code, equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state.

Notice that "sex" has been replaced with "gender", and they've added "sexual orientation" to the list. And the last item is non-specific and depends on whatever crazy definitions of hate the California Assembly might one day dream up.

The new definitions are defined. Most are intuitive, some aren't:

"Gender" means sex, and includes a person's gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth.

Here's the old, outdated definition of "sex" that gender replaced:

"Sex" means the biological condition or quality of being a male or female human being.

My how times change. Next, here's the new definition of religion, which may raise a few hackles by itself:

"Religion" includes all aspects of religious belief, observance, and practice and includes agnosticism and atheism.

Most atheists would not consider themselves religious but that does seem to set up an interesting dichotomy regards the teaching of macro-evolution, or Muslim culture, for example.

"Sexual orientation" means heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.

At risk of offending, why not include beastialitists, pedophiles, polygamists or eunuchs, since all are making a choice to behave in such manners? It would seem if the state wants to protect a certain group that group should be recognized scientifically as a group. Are people born bi-sexual, for example? The case can perhaps be made that people are born with a propensity towards homosexuality, but what physiological traits exist in bi-sexuals that are different from homosexuals or heterosexuals? Does anyone know? Therefore, they would appear no different than eunuchs or polygamists. Discrimination!

The funny thing is, neither teachers nor textbooks are discriminating against the protected kids now. That's why Christian groups believe the only purpose was to redefine the terms in an effort to force out quaint colloquialisms such as 'mom and pop'. They may be right. It'll be interesting to see if California can effectively ban the term "mom and dad" since technically everyone has a mom and dad, even if the dad is a sperm donor and the mom is a surrogate. Loopholes are loopholes.

But this aspect of the new law may even be more troubling:

..and students, whether male or female, must be allowed to use the restroom and locker room corresponding to the sex with which they choose to identify.

Do they not understand the nature of teenaged boys? Think of the movie "Porky's" without the hole in the girl's bathroom wall.

In the end this whole thing was probably just a conspiracy by the lawyers. Christians should not stop fighting for their rightful place in the shaping of society but they really shouldn't be surprised at any of this. It was all foretold long ago.

QUESTION... 10/17/07

Here is the Preamble to the California state constitution:

We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure and perpetuate its blessings, do establish this Constitution.

Can California school kids learn about or repeat this phrase while in school without offending others?

UPDATE 10/19/07

Reader PD points out a mistake. In the main text I seemed to attribute this statement to the bill:

..and students, whether male or female, must be allowed to use the restroom and locker room corresponding to the sex with which they choose to identify

It was originally supposed to have been attributed to WND based apparently on this site. Sorry for the mixup.