Pro-family groups in California are pointing to a recent first-grade field trip as an example of the importance of passing Proposition 8. For the school-sponsored trip, 18 first-graders -- ages 5 and 6 -- were taken to San Francisco City Hall to witness the wedding of their teacher and her lesbian partner. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the school's principal said the field trip was "a teachable moment." (see related article with pictures in the Chronicle) In contrast, Frank Schubert, one of the managers for the ProtectMarriage.com campaign in the Golden State, describes the school-sponsored trip as indoctrination of young children. "I doubt the school has ever taken kids on a field trip to a traditional wedding," he quips.Sonja Eddings Brown, a spokesperson with ProtectMarriage.com, says the field trip was inappropriate.
"I think it's an experience that those children will probably never forget. That's what is a concern, because children are in their most trusting and developmental stages when they start kindergarten, first grade, and second grade," she explains. "All of us have had a very influential teacher at one time or another, especially in grade school, who we just thought walked on water -- and what if that teacher introduced us to the idea of gay marriage?"
Officiating at the lesbian couple's wedding was San Francisco's pro-homosexual mayor, Gavin Newsom. In addition, news reports indicate some of the children who attended the wedding wore "No on 8" campaign buttons. Proposition 8 would amend the California constitution to recognize marriage as only between a man and a woman. The ProtectMarriage.com campaign says the school field trip demonstrates that the California Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex "marriage" has real consequences.
