Several gay activists, including a local rabbi, were kicked out of a Los Angeles church where the congregation had gathered to kick off a signature drive to repeal California's Fair Education Act, or SB 48, which would require schools to teach LGBT history as part of their curriculum. True to the form, the church's pastor Xavier Thompson claims he's not a bigot.
According to Rod 2.0:
"This is not about us hating anyone or being homophobic or guilty of bigotry," pastor Xavier Thompson told KTLA. "The fact of the matter is that we believe that we cannot sexualize history."
Groups who support the new law showed up the meeting to voice their perspective. ... Just prior to the start of the meeting, a trio of SB 48 supporters, including a local rabbi, were asked to leave.
"We just wanted to know if we could come, listen, observe and hear their side, because we want to come to the table on some common ground," said Milton Davis, of the Jordan/Rustin Coalition. "They said that they did not want us on the property at all, period. They told us they were asking us to leave, but they told us they would be willing to remove us if they needed physically," Davis told KTLA.
First off, just because you're not spewing anti-gay slurs and frothing at the mouth doesn't mean you're not homophobic or a bigot. The fact that you want to exclude the struggles and contributions of LGBT people from school curriculums on the grounds that it would "sexualize" history (feeding into the stereotype that we're all perverts whose existence totally revolves around sex) and would indoctrinate your children into the 'homosexual agenda' makes you a homophobic bigot. And while we're on it, "sexualize history?" Is the inclusion of Cesar Chavez, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcom X and other major black/hispanic figures in school books racializing history? Is history being "feminized" by teaching kids about women's sufferage or profiling contributions female politicians, activists, singers, writers and artists have made to society? Of course not.
The signature circulation deadline for the bill, signed in July, is October 12. About half a million signatures needed for the bill make the ballot, which is sadly a likely possibility. Watch KTLA's report below.
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