The group petitioning against California’s law to promote history of prominent gays and lesbians failed to collect enough signatures to force a ballot referendum in the November 2012 elections.
Stop SB 48 and other conservative groups needed to collect 505,000 signatures from registered voters within 90 days after the law was signed.
“Unfortunately we did not collect enough signatures to qualify the referendum to overturn SB 48,” Stop SB 48 wrote in an email to supporters Wednesday. “That law will be in place in our schools at the first of next year.”
The FAIR Education Act requires classrooms in California to include lessons about the historical contributions of a number of minorities, including gays and lesbians. According to Stop SB 48, the law both “promotes the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lifestyles” and “forces children to study materials that tell them their families’ values are wrong.”
Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, called the law “indoctrination” and said there would be consequences for legislators who supported it. “The legislators will pay a price for the disrespect and intolerance of parents’ viewpoints,” he said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Parents across the state were outraged that the state is promoting indoctrination of viewpoints that many parents disagree with.”
The Courage Campaign had filed a complaint with the state Attorney General on behalf of someone who alleged that petitioners for Stop SB 48 used anti-child molester posters to draw people into signing the petition. The Courage Campaign told TPM it still plans to pursue its lawsuit.
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