Equality California and the coalition of organizations have their work cut out for them if we are to stop a referendum of Senate Bill 48, the FAIR Act, from reaching the ballot. Previous research on marriage equality shows that a significant number of straight mothers, while supportive of LGBT rights, will not support us when the issue turns to parental controls and what their children are taught in school. It is astounding that in the three years since voters passed Proposition 8, California's same-sex marriage ban, so many straight allies remain conflicted when it comes to their children learning about LGBTs in the classroom.
Yet as the Stop SB 48 proponents continue with their signature gathering campaign, we can't help but feel that the LGBT community is being lulled into complacency, because the issue doesn't generate headlines like marriage equality. And while supporters of the Fair, Accurate, Respectful, and Inclusive Education Act work to tie the issue of inclusive learning to preventing bullying on school campuses, the far-right is using its bully pulpit (and the pulpits of an untold number of churches) to quash that argument.
State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the author of SB 48, is eloquent when he speaks of the benefits all students will gain from a curriculum that includes lessons about famous LGBTs, like slain Supervisor Harvey Milk. Children, he says, know when someone is different from them and instead of working from a place of fear, as is usually the case with bullies, the FAIR Act would teach respect for all people, gay and straight, disabled and able-bodied, just as current social science lessons teach about African American, Asian American, and Latino leaders. Unfortunately, Leno is just one man when, in reality, we need a small army of people to spread that message.
EQCA and its coalition partners must step in and fill the void. The coalition must move beyond the group-think of its members and take the case directly to LGBT and allied supporters. Public meetings are one important way to do that, yet we see no effort to hold such forums. Focus groups and messaging tests are important, but we need folks on the ground to begin educating themselves so that they can talk to their friends, neighbors, and co-workers. After the Prop 8 campaign, groups like the Courage Campaign held mini boot camps up and down the state, teaching people to tell their "stories of self," and why supporting marriage equality is important to them. Now, we need all those people to tell personal stories about why it's critical that kids today learn of the contributions of LGBT Americans, that history should not be censored, and no, kids won't "turn gay" just because they hear a history lesson about Milk or pioneering lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin.
The other important truth is that students are already learning about LGBT leaders. They are regularly covered in mainstream media, on TV, and in the movies. In California, we have had two observances of Harvey Milk Day, on which public school teachers are encouraged to teach about Milk's contributions to society. Far more than a gay activist, Milk worked to build coalitions between gays and organized labor and communities of color. That, in turn, helped defeat the Briggs initiative back in 1978, which would have barred gays from working as public school teachers.
EQCA, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, and other coalition partners are off to a slow start against the referendum when there is no time to spare. The coalition must reach out to the community that it will need to help fight this one. The people who will be the most influential to voters are neighbors and colleagues. In the absence of millions of dollars, which the coalition at this point does not have, it's time to take this fight to the grassroots and broaden the base.