Conservatives Contest First Graders' School Trip to Gay Wedding
A first grade class took a school-sponsored trip to a gay wedding last week, drawing heavy criticism from pro-family conservatives.
According to reports, 18 first graders, ages five and six, traveled to San Francisco City Hall Friday for the wedding of their teacher and her lesbian partner, demonstrating what some see as a real consequence of the California Supreme Court's decision to legal same- sex "marriage."
"Taking children out of school for a same-sex wedding is not customary education. This is promoting same- sex marriage and indoctrinating young kids," said Yes on 8 and ProtectMarriage.com Campaign Co-Manager Frank Schubert in a released statement.
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"I doubt the school has ever taken kids on a field trip to a traditional wedding," Schubert added.
Liz Jaroslow, the school's interim director, told The San Francisco Chronicle that the field trip was "a teachable moment," and said she believes the field trip was justified academically.
"I think I'm well within the parameters," she said.
Officials in other school districts, however, disagree.
Santa Ana Unified School District board member Rosemarie "Rosie" Avila told ProtectMarriage.com that teaching kids whether gay "marriage" is okay or not should not be up to public schools but "is an issue for parents to discuss with their children according to their own values and beliefs."
"It shouldn't be forced on us against our will," Avila added.
The wedding on Friday was officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a "friend of a friend," who is featured in a recently released Yes on 8 television ad. In the ad, Newsom declares that the door to same-sex "marriage" is "wide open now" and that "[i]t's gonna happen, whether you like it or not."
The Yes on 8 campaign explains that if the voters do not overturn the California Supreme Court's same-sex "marriage" ruling by voting for Proposition 8 next month, teachers will be required to teach young children that there is no difference between gay "marriage" and traditional marriage.
"This is overt indoctrination of children who are too young to understand it," said Chip White, press secretary for Yes on 8, regarding the news of last week's contested field trip.
According to the Chronicle, 6-year-old Nolan Alexander said Friday that marriage is "people falling in love."
It means, he added, "You stay with someone the rest of your life."
Since same-sex "marriage" became legal in California in mid-June, at least 11,000 couples have exchanged vows statewide, according to the Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy based at the University of California, Los Angeles.
And since news spread last week that Proposition 8's supporters had far outraised its opponents and the measure was gaining support in public opinion polls, more gay couples from around California and the nation have been feverishly tying the knot ahead of Election Day to avoid missing out if voters approve Proposition 8, which would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to between a man and a woman.
If approved, the ballot initiative would overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that made the state only the second, after Massachusetts, to legalize same-sex "marriage." On Friday, the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled the state would be the third to allow gay "marriage."
