Setting the standard.

New California law may spark protections for students nationwide

All told, it took a lot more than a stroke of a pen. But that's all that mattered October 2, when California governor Gray Davis signed a bill banning harassment of the state's students and teachers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The move by the bellwether state not only quintuples the number of U.S. students covered by such protections but could also prompt legislators in other states to introduce similar measures.

"This legislation is a landmark," said Jim Anderson, communications director of the New York City-based Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, adding that he has already received calls from legislators in several states interested in introducing similar bills.

When signing the legislation, which had been damned by religious conservatives and dumped by the state assembly earlier this year, Davis called it a powerful deterrent to the "hatred and ignorance" that "taint our schools, our classrooms, and our children." Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Wisconsin are the only other states that ban antigay harassment of public school students. But California's new law is broader because it includes students and faculty at the state's public colleges and universities, Anderson said.

Also securing Davis's signature were a bill toughening the state's housing and employment nondiscrimination statutes on sexual orientation and a bill establishing a domestic-partnership registry for same-sex couples and for opposite-sex couples age 62 or older (some of whom could lose Social Security benefits by marrying). Registered partners will be able to claim joint hospital visitation rights; those who work for the state and certain municipalities will be eligible to put their domestic partners on their health insurance.

The civil rights and family policy thrusts of these two bills would usually make them favored targets of conservative ire. But itwas the school bill, sponsored by openly lesbian assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, that drew the most protests from religions right groups, including Lou Sheldon's Traditional Values Coalition and a Sheldon-led contingent of Lafino ministers. Despite a massive campaign to persuade Davis to veto the bills, he signed all three.

"This is a watershed moment in the fight to end antigay harassment in our nation's schools," said GLSEN executive director Kevin Jennings of the school bill. "We now need to see other governors who cite education as a priority--like George W. Bush--follow Governor Davis's example."