leave our children alone. Protect your family. save the children

In the past few days, parents have been shouting slogans like these in Glendale, North Hollywood, Temecula, and even on the steps of the State Capitol, in a fit of hatred that many in California thought was a thing of the past. is.

But as Sister Roma of the much maligned Sisterhood of Eternal Indulgence told me when I sat down for a few minutes on Monday, it’s not really the parents who fuel the hate: And anyway, everything old becomes new again. For example, leg warmers are back.

Roma said of far-right agitators, “They cling to sheer terror with the last of their strength.” Just like the ultraconservatives did the last time California tried to keep schools out of anything suggestive of gender diversity.

More than 75 laws have been passed by state legislatures across the country this year, making gender-related issues illegal, from discussing sexuality in the classroom to holding public drag performances. Republican bannermen such as Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene have despised the anti-LGBTQ+ brand, and the current Supreme Court is a milestone in legalizing the law. There is great concern that it will overturn the classic 2015 Obergefel v. Hodges case. Sexual marriage nationwide.

Hard to believe it’s 2023, but especially in California, around 1978, the Briggs Initiative, also known as Proposition 6, did this. That was when voters considered giving school boards the power to fire gay and lesbian teachers and anyone who openly supports gays. right.

The Briggs Initiative, named after then-state senator John Briggs, a conservative from Orange County, also contested LBGTQ+ rights and parental rights. The effort argues that having gay and lesbian teachers in classrooms is dangerous for children because such educators “recruit” students into their “lifestyle.” bottom.

The newspaper reported in July 1977 that Mr Briggs said, “I don’t understand why children should sit in front of a homosexual teacher for eight hours. I can’t put them in danger.” .

Sound familiar?

“Save the children” is nothing new, dusting and refreshing for another generation to serve the Far Right’s goal of undermining democracy and preserving the unstable status quo. and is just a repurposed attack, supercharged through social media QAnon pipes. of power. Remember when you were trying to save your kids from the Democrats who took adrenochrome and ritually abused them? Under DC Pizza Parlopicture?

If those who oppose diversity cannot now attempt to ban humans outright, they will ban the idea, deliberately confusing inclusion with indoctrination, and “grooming” with existing. would infuriate his supporters. After all, who wouldn’t want to save their children if the threat felt real?

As now, all of the Briggs fuss at the time emanated from Florida—particularly in Dade County, where pop singer Anita Bryant, known for her role as publicist for the Florida Citrus Commission, wrote “Save・The Children” campaign. Repeal laws that protect gay and lesbian people from job and housing discrimination. She successfully argued that she had the right to control “the moral atmosphere in which her children were raised.”

Her campaign was a reaction to a decade of expanding recognition of gay civil rights since the 1969 Stonewall riots. That sparked a national movement, and Briggs, with Bryant’s backing, took it up.

Bryant’s campaign was successful, but provoked a strong reaction from California’s LGBTQ+ community. On the night Florida passed Bryant’s ordinance, politician Harvey Milk, then a junior member of the San Francisco City Oversight Board, led thousands of protesters on Castro Street.

After the Briggs Initiative hit the California state ballot and collected hundreds of thousands of signatures, Milk became one of the most vocal critics of the initiative. In an unforgettable speech on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, he spoke of the need to keep California a place of hope and acceptance.

“Young gays in Altoona, Pennsylvania and Richmond, Minnesota are coming out and listening to Anita Bryant and her on TV. The only thing they have to look forward to is hope,” said Milk. Told. “And we have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come when the pressure at home is too great. Everything will work out. I hope that.”

That is Harvey Milk, whose achievements have recently been demeaned by the Temecula Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees, but in the district, Milk’s name was mentioned in a few pages of historical documents, leading to a majority of conservatives. sects refused to adopt the new social studies curriculum. That’s what erasure means. It discourages future generations from believing in hope for the oppressed, leaving them feeling alone and mistaken.

Governor Gavin Newsom and Governor Athi on Wednesday. General Rob Bonta announced that he was investigating Temecula’s actions for possible violations of state law.

The Briggs Initiative was ultimately defeated by more than a million votes, despite initial polls predicting an easy pass. The turning point came when former Governor Ronald Reagan, along with then-Governor Reagan, voiced their opposition. Jerry Brown and then-President Carter.

So I remember Monday and Sister Roma in the Capitol.

I met Roma at a Pride Month reception in the Capitol in a room full of gay leaders. There, 16 LGBTQ+ activists were honored by the Senate and Congress. The room was also attended by LGBTQ+ figures in parliament, and more than 10% of elected lawmakers now identify as non-heterosexual.

It was a room that hadn’t been seen in Kansas, Florida, Nebraska, or anywhere else in 1978. Along with Sister Roma, who wore a royal blue plume, honorees included tennis legends Billie Jean King and Rosemary Casals. Phil Colum, Chula Vista’s first openly gay assistant police chief; There’s former Marine Corps Colonel Janessa Goldbeck, who is running for candidacy in San Diego, and people you probably haven’t even heard of, who are in lifelong service to make this state a better place.

Since 2000, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have donated more than $887,000 to charities such as St. Cyprian’s Episcopal “Immigration Fund” program, AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco, and Bay Area Rainbow Symphony I’ve been That’s a little more than the $1,500 he raised in his first fundraiser for gay Cuban refugees in 1980. The Sisters have come a long way, but they never strayed from their mission to spread universal joy and clear stigma.

“I have never come from a place of much hate,” said Sister Roma. His blue eyes are gentle and unflinching.

It “actually hurts,” she told me, that people believe she’s mocking something. However, she and her sisters will continue to do what they do because “seeing without fear encourages others.”

Each awardee walked through the central aisle of the Senate and Congress to receive a gold-framed resolution honoring their achievements. On both occasions, Republicans walked out of the chamber when Sister Roma received the award. Hundreds of protesters then gathered outside, allegedly angered by the “ridicule” the Sister Roma and his denomination were expressing against the Catholic Church. Let’s not forget, the Catholic Church faces bankruptcy across California as the financial burden of sexual abuse lawsuits mounts.

But as Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), the first gay woman to hold the post, told me at the reception, there has been a “massive shift” in who holds power in California. and there will be no turning back. Until 1978.

“It all boils down to freedom,” says Atkins. Not only protect, but advance.

Earlier that day, on the same staircase where protests against Sister Roma took place, LGBTQ+ lawmakers voted to repeal Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California, by 2024. announced that it is pushing to amend the state constitution for a vote on Yes, it’s still in the California Constitution, even though it was overturned by the courts. It says, “Only marriages between men and women are valid or recognized in the State of California.”

If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns federal rights to same-sex marriage, having the voided proposal on the books could be a problem in California. So, as State Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco), one of the drafters of the amendment, says, “We need to get aggressive.”

Another quote from Milk comes to mind here.

“Like all groups, we must be judged by our leaders, by those who are gay themselves, by those who stand out,” he said. rice field.

With activists like Sister Roma and elected representatives like Atkins and Wiener in office across the state, we are on the offensive. It’s not Florida, it’s not 1978, even though there’s all the hatred there that is fueled by the most vile motives and used to exploit parents.

Visibility and equality may not be perfect in California. But unlike leg warmers, closets never come back.