-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Claremont Institute Precepts: Bad Bill Fails Date sent: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 12:10:13 -0700 The Claremont Institute--PRECEPTS | | June 9, 1999 Visit <http://www.claremont.org> | | No. 172 We are pleased to report an astonishing development in the California legislature last week: A bad bill failed to pass. California is not quite a one-party state, but close. The majority party commands a seven seat margin in the lower house. The bad bill was written and sponsored by one of the more powerful and capable members of the majority. The Speaker of the Assembly gave his personal guarantee the bill would pass. Governor Gray Davis, who is member of the same party as the legislative majority, promised to sign it. The bill was AB 222, dubbed the "Dignity for all Students Act." We have written of it here previously. Sponsored by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, a liberal and outspoken lesbian from Santa Monica, the bill would have added "sexual preference" to the growing list of groups covered under the state education code's anti-discrimination provision. Sounds like a winner. But when the bill finally came to a vote late Thursday night, supporters could not muster the 41 votes needed to pass it. Eight members of the majority broke ranks and voted against the bill -- despite heavy whipping by their leadership, including threats of abandonment in the next election if they did not tow the party line. Debate lasted two and a half hours, during which opponents were greeted with the customary charge that they are Nazis. None of them seem actually to be members of that party. Backers of AB 222 said a law is needed to address the problem of harassment and abuse directed against homosexual students in schools. There are plenty of rules already against harassment and abuse, as there are against assault and physical violence. Those rules need to be enforced, and if they are not enforced it will not help to pass more rules. Harassment, abuse, and violence ought not to be permitted in schools against any students, including homosexuals, but not only they. But this is not the point of AB 222: it is rather to endorse the special claim to virtue of the homosexual style of life. To endorse that claim is a big step. Schools, it was once thought, should teach essential knowledge and build character. Character depends upon the practice of the virtues, moral and intellectual. The moral virtues encompass the fidelity and self-control that make family life healthy. Without healthy family life, there would be few children. In that case Mary would have to bring many lambs to school, to avoid loneliness. AB 222 did not confine itself to restrictions against harassment. The draft under consideration until just one day before the final vote would have affected what was said in the classroom upon the subject of family life. Family life is in a poor state in America today, although just lately a promising little inch has been reclaimed from the many acres lost. Divorce is down a little, for example. People are taking a new look at the common practice of late term abortion in our land. Generally the sexual revolution is understood now to carry costs, some of them high. We should be looking to keep momentum going that way. The California legislature did its part, at least for a day last week. Count your blessings. Sincerely, Larry P. Arnn President, The Claremont Institute ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1999 The Claremont Institute To subscribe to Precepts, go to: http://www.claremont.org/subscrib.cfm , or e-mail us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] . 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