API Equality-LA Reacts to Anti-Equality Advocates’ Change in Strategy

Los Angeles, CA —The histories of African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Latinos are recognized as contributors to the building of this great state. Unfortunately, there were other groups who were left out. The California Legislature and Governor Brown recognized this disparity by signing the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act into law. The FAIR Education Act would recognize other minorities as contributors to our state’s history, particularly the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) communities.

Anti-equality advocates filed papers and started a petition to repeal FAIR, specifically to block efforts to include LGBT people from our history. API Equality-LA was gearing up to fight such efforts in 2012. However, now it appears that FAIR opponents are postponing their efforts until 2014! This raises questions about whether these anti-equality advocates were able to gather enough signatures to support this kind of legislation in the first place.

“I think the writing is on the blackboard,” said Eileen Ma, Executive Director of API Equality-LA. “Californians want the histories of ALL people told. This shows that fair-minded Californians know that discrimination does not belong in the classroom.”