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“Stop SB48” Failures Promises A Second Attack On CA’s LGBT Education Law

The haters in California who worry that teaching kids about LGBT history will turn their little darlings into a orgy of genital-devouring genderqueers didn’t get enough signatures to get a ballot referendum repealing California’s LGBT-inclusive Fair Education Act (aka SB48). Ooooh, that stings!

But worry not! The hatey haters at Stop SB48 have promised to return soon with an all-new initiative designed to ensure that Bayard Rustin and Barbara Jordan’s homosexuality never makes the history books. Will their plan succeed this time? It depends…

Adam Bink at Prop 8 Trial Tracker explains the difference between the referendum and initiative process and the likelhood of StopSB48’s success:

An initiative requires collection of the same number of signatures as a referendum (504,760) but one gets more time in which to get complete the process (90 days for a referendum to get title and summary, collect signatures and turn them in vs. 150 days for an initiative). In addition, for an initiative, the 150-day clock starts after the title and summary are received from the attorney general, whereas with a referendum [groups must start collecting signatures starts before they receive the AG’s title and summary]. The initiative must also qualify at least 131 days before the next statewide election at which the sponsor is attempting to qualify the measure — in this case, before November 6, 2012. They also must start from scratch — they cannot use the signatures they collected the first time around. There are also additional deadlines depending on how many signatures are collected and which counting method is used by elections officials to verify signatures.

Translation of all of that. The Stop SB 48 campaign claims they collected 497,404 signatures. Let’s say for the moment that isn’t bluster and it’s accurate. A general rule of thumb on collecting signatures is that a percentage (some say around 20%) are invalid for one reason or another — and that is acknowledged below by the campaign itself. So they fell fairly short, even if they aren’t exaggerating. If they get an extra 60 days to collect signatures, will they make it? Maybe.

Bink says the Stop SB48 crowd will have to face tough deadlines, raise money to employ paid signature-gatherers and work against the time, money and resources of pro-LGBT groups fighting their bigoted lies.

Also considering that schools will begin teaching LGBT history on January 1st, Bink says that most voters will see that California children haven’t started drinking Pink Ladies, marching for bisexual Wiccan rights or buying copies of Sloppy Cumbottoms 3—despite their exposure to LGBT history—and may decide not to sign a petition against SB48 the second time around.

And if StopSB48 does mount a campaign, we’ll be around to make sure that it doesn’t go unchallenged—that means you, haters.

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