Courage Campaign, Equality California & others launch 'Decline to Sign' campaign to torpedo referendum targeting new LGBT history law

Rex Wockner reports that The California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, and the University of California Academic Student Employees Union will also fight the effort to collect 504,760 signatures to put the referendum on the ballot.

On Aug. 5, Equality California announced it has launched an SB 48 hotline and created "truth squads" to interrupt signature-gathering -- both on the LGBT referendum and other, unnamed anti-"progressive" campaigns.

"We need your eyes and ears on the ground today," said EQCA Executive Director Roland Palencia. "If you spot anti-LGBT, anti-progressive signature gatherers, report them immediately by calling the toll-free ’Decline to Sign Hotline’ at 1-877-440-9585. We’ll immediately dispatch a trained ’truth squad’ to make sure potential petition signers know the truth about these initiatives including the referendum on the FAIR Education Act."

Meanwhile, Lambda Legal’s legal director, Jon Davidson, said Aug. 1 that if the repeal referendum passes, it might be found unconstitutional.

That’s because in 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws cannot single out gay people for disfavored treatment. (See www.tinyurl.com/romer-v.)