At the CRP convention last month Abel Maldonado went overboard in his attempt to portray himself as the candidate who will best represent Latinos. His hospitality suite even featured a buffet of Mexican food and a Mariachi band. Campaign pamphlets handed out to attendees included facts about Latinos in California. But despite the public relations campaign, Maldonado’s voting record reveals how out of step he is with Latino values.

The Latino community is socially conservative and family-centered. In 2008, well over 50% of Latinos voted for Proposition 8. But Maldonado has consistently voted for bills that are decidedly anti family values. Last year, Maldonado not only voted for the extremely controversial and divisive Harvey Milk Day bill, during a Senate committee hearing, he publicly attacked a pro-family leader who was testifying against the bill.

Now, Maldonado has once again joined with those pushing progressive, anti-traditional values legislation. ACR 82, by Assemblyman Isadore Hall, would “encourage” public schools make their campuses “Discrimination-Free Zones.” Since no one supports discrimination, that sounds like a fairly noble goal.

But read further and one discovers that to be a “Discrimination-Free Zone,” the legislature wants the schools to “develop and enact policies that support tolerance and acceptance of others,” including homosexuals and transgenders. Keep in mind that this includes “counseling services and conflict management” for students beginning in pre-kindergarten.

True tolerance does not include indoctrinating five-year-olds about homosexuality or transgenderism. Most parents—including the traditional pro-family Latino community—don’t want their young children taught about controversial sexual lifestyles at school. Such matters are best dealt with at home.

Unfortunately, many legislators, including Republicans, have bought into the fallacy of using “diversity training” to prevent so-called “hate crimes.” It is not the responsibility of the law to punish criminals for the hate in their heart, but for their actual criminal behavior. As the government begins to criminalize religious beliefs, we lose our right to freedom of thought and expression. If a kindergarten or second grade student expresses their belief in traditional marriage, they’ll end up in “counseling” sessions for their “discriminatory” beliefs.

Not only is Abel Maldonado a supporter of this legislation, he is the only Republican and senator who is a co-author. Resolutions like ACR 82 will further erode our freedom of speech and the traditional values so many Californians still cherish.  Abel Maldonado is seriously out of step with the very community that he claims to represent.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.