Schwarzenegger
vetoes bill on gay protections in textbooks

A bill passed by California lawmakers would have prohibited the use of language in school textbooks that is discriminatory toward gays, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to sign it. Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that the state's education laws already prevent discrimination and that the bill "would not strengthen this important area of legal protection from bias based on sexual orientation." The bill, which won final passage last week, would have expanded current antidiscrimination laws by prohibiting any negative portrayals of gay people in textbooks and other instructional material. An original version would have required social science textbooks to include the historical contributions of gay people, but the California assembly amended it in an effort to avoid a veto from the Republican governor. The bill's author, openly lesbian state senator Sheila Kuehl, called the veto "inexplicable.... I am extremely disappointed that the governor chose to respond to a small, shrill group of right-wing extremists rather than a fair-minded majority of Californians who support this reasonable measure." AP)