Chairman Newsom? LG Appears Infallible in School Textbook

Finding himself on the ‘hot seat’ today, Lt. Governor and current candidate for Governor Gavin Newsom is under heavy fire from critics for appearing in a first grade textbook.

Appearing in the textbook isn’t necessarily the problem in itself; however, some are describing his presence as propaganda. In 2004, Newsom was mayor of San Francisco. During that time he ordered the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Now, the textbook that is being tested in the Elk Grove Unified School District refers to that decision and Newsom as “A Champion for People’s Rights.”

Specifically, part of the textbook reads, “Gavin said that people could marry who they choose. Sometimes, Gavin helped marry people. Some marriages were not between a man and a woman. He made sure that people’s rights were respected.”

Not only does the paperback declare Newsom a “champion for people’s rights,” but according to the SacBee, Greg Burt, a parent of a child in the school district and spokesman for the conservative Fresno-based California Family Council, said, “It looked like the text had been written by the (Newsom) campaign.”

According to sources, this individual book was one of six to be chosen and is currently offering only a preview of what will become the full-scale version. It is certainly eye-catching, however, to see Newsom, a current candidate for governor in a hotly contested race to lead the nation’s largest state, in a book alongside Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.