The gay and lesbian community has faced some harsh criticism in the past, but in the last couple of years it has seen a lot of legislative backing. Now California, one of the first states to embrace it, is host to some classroom backlash.
Monday’s meeting of the Capistrano Unified School District’s school board should be rather interesting to say the least. At the meeting, Stan Wasbin, a father of four, plans to protest how local schools are becoming “re-education camps” due to excessive focus on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender agendas, says the San Juan Capistrano Patch .
Wasbin, a resident of San Clemente, asked in a three-page letter that his concerns about the supposedly agenda-driven movement be placed on the official board discussions, says Yahoo News . He states:
“In our public schools, we want our children to learn math, music, science, English, art, American history and a foreign language or two. That’s a lot, and that’s enough. If someone has made an important contribution … and that person happens to be classified as LGBT — then by all means, let’s teach our children about that person — but not because of that person’s sexual identity group.”
Wasbin suggested that the politicization of public school curricula could ultimately lead to anti- LGBT consequences:
“Today, the state political winds blow from the left; but tomorrow, they could blow from the right, and then our children may be forced to learn about the role and contributions of other groups, such as gun owners, death-penalty proponents and anti-abortion advocates. Do we really want to politicize public education like this?”
Should we allow specifically LGBT material to be spotlighted just because of sexual orientation or identity? Or should we just place it in the Social Studies curriculum and call it a day?
