AFA's "Indoctrination" Graphic

California’s FAIR Education Act, signed into law yesterday by Gov. Jerry Brown (D), will require schools to teach the contributions of LGBT Americans. Because this bill involves children, who conservatives regularly exploit as needing “protection” from the predatory “gay agenda,” the reactions are particularly negative and lie-ridden:

- TRADITIONAL VALUES COALITION: “It is an outrage that Governor Jerry Brown has opened the classroom door for homosexual activists to indoctrinate the minds of California’s youth, since no factual materials would be allowed to be presented. [...] If parents don’t already have their children out of public schools, this should cause them to remove them.”-

SAVE CALIFORNIA: “It’s ridiculous that Jerry Brown says he’s making history ‘honest.’ The bill he signed prohibits teachers and textbooks from telling children the facts that homosexuality has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS and other STDs, higher cancer rates, and earlier deaths. These important facts about lifestyles children will being forced to admire will be omitted.”

- CATHOLICS FOR THE COMMON GOOD: “Claims that this bill is needed to reduce bullying against children that are experiencing gender confusion, or take on ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’ identities, are absurd. Children must be taught respect for all persons because of their intrinsic value, not because they agree with their behavior or like their characteristics.”

- FOCUS ON THE FAMILY: “We should be teaching our children that people are deserving of celebration in history books because of their outstanding, worthy accomplishments, regardless of how they identify sexually or otherwise. After all, Benjamin Franklin is in history books because he demonstrated that lightening was electricity — not because of his sexual choices.”

- AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION (headline): Gov. approves ‘sexual brainwashing bill’

- CA ASSEMBLYMAN TIM DONNELLY (R): “It’s a sad day for our republic when we have the government essentially telling people what they should think,” said Tim Donnelly, a Republican state assemblyman from San Bernadino. Mr. Donnelly said the law prohibited schools from presenting gays and lesbians “in anything other than a positive light, and I think that’s censorship right there.”

Inspired by New York’s successful enactment of marriage equality legislation, Colorado college student Mark Olmstead hopes to overturn the state’s “2006 ballot measure that defined marriage in Colorado as between a man and a woman” with a ballot initiative of his own:

The state’s title board will review the language of his ballot- initiative proposal next week. If it is approved, the next step will be to collect 86,000 signatures to get the initiative before voters in the 2012 election.

“I think the attitudes in Colorado toward gay marriage have shifted since 2006,” said Olmstead, who is gay.

Similar attempts have been made before, including in 2009, when a 23-year-old golf club salesman tried to launch a ballot initiative to change the definition of marriage in the state constitution.

Last month, U.S. News’ Laura Chapin reported that both the state House and Senate sponsors of this year’s failed civil unions measure are considering re-introducing the legislation. In fact, some GOP lawmakers who voted against the effort are already having second thoughts.

Sen. Shawn Mitchell (R) recently said he’s re-thinking his no vote. “Considering these things, I wondered if I was focusing on a mote that might touch heterosexual families, and missing a beam squeezing gay households,” he wrote. “Maybe recognizing civil unions could blur the focus on two parent homes raising children. But maybe the impact would be minuscule compared to broader trends ravaging families. And maybe the benefits that same-sex households would feel acutely are simply more important and more valuable to them than any speculative and marginal damage to the climate for heterosexual commitment is to others.”

Marcus Bachmann is finally speaking out about allegations that his Christian counseling clinics, Bachmann & Associates, perform “pray away the gay” therapy that instructs gay clients that they can change their sexual orientation through prayer and therapy. Last week, an undercover investigation by Truth Wins Out and a testimonial from one of the center’s patients confirmed long-standing rumors that Bachmann’s centers did practice so-called “ex-gay” or reparative therapy all while receiving federal Medicaid funds.

But rather than deny the charges, Bachmann admitted that the clinic would perform reparative therapy upon request:

“This individual came to us under a false pretense,” Bachmann said. “The truth of the matter is he specifically asked for help.” [...] He didn’t deny that he or other counselors at Bachmann & Associates have attempted to convert gay patients, but he said it is not a special interest of the business and would only be attempted at the client’s request. “Will I address it? Certainly we’ll talk about it,” Bachmann said. “Is it a remedy form that I typically would use? … It is at the client’s discretion.”

In the interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Bachmann also claimed that a much-publicized recording from a 2010 radio interview in which he said gays were “barbarians” who needed to be “disciplined” was doctored. “I was talking in reference to children. Nothing, nothing to do with homosexuality. That’s not my mindset. That’s not my belief system. That’s not the way I would talk,” Bachmann said. But listen to the 2010 interview and judge for yourself:

Michele Bachmann has repeatedly refused to address the reports, saying only that she is “very proud of our business” and “proud of all job creators in the United States.” In 2004, however, she spoke before an ex-gay group in Minnesota, claiming that they will “present the truth about homosexuality.”

Both the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association — among other groups — have ruled that efforts to change sexual orientation have no scientific credibility and can cause psychological harm to patients. As a recent revelations about Dr. George Rekers’ efforts to change the sexual orientation of a 7-year-old boy reveal, sometimes that therapy can lead to deadly consequences.