Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills aimed at protecting GLBT students from abuse: “Students’ Civil Rights Act,” and the “Safe Place to Learn Act.”

Despite his veto of the same-sex marriage bill, this governor has now signed more bills in support of GLBT rights than all past governors combined. He appointed the first lesbian to the California Supreme Court; his chief of staff is a lesbian, and Maria’s chief is Dan Zingale, who is openly gay. He’s also vowed to campaign against any initiative that would seek to overturn the California Supreme Court’s expected decision to allow same-sex marriage.

The two bills he signed dealing with students’ rights have outraged the right-wing fringe. The bills do little more than clarify existing law that prohibits bias against persons based on a variety of characteristics, including sexual orientation. SB 777 simply prohibits schools from engaging in derogatory references to GLBT citizens.

The right wing claims that SB 777 means schools cannot refer to heterosexual couples and traditional families. No. What it means is that school teachers cannot refer to Oscar Wilde or Walt Whitman as “those perverted queers,” or suggest, “The best thing about Iran is they behead homosexuals.”

But, of course, opponents suggest that prohibiting such anti-gay bias infringes upon a “math teacher’s freedom of religious expression.” I kid you not.

The “Safe Place to Learn” Act simply requires school districts to keep track of anti-gay abuse claims, and it requires superintendent of public schools Jack O’Connell to monitor compliance. The Legislature passed the same law almost a decade ago, but school districts refused to comply, and the Department of Education was only to happy to abandon monitoring compliance in the face of a budget crunch.

I argued here that the law (signed by the governor) does not go far enough. It should require the state to investigate student complaints of abuse, mediate disputes, and, if necessary, deny state funds to school districts that don’t cooperate. The law should hold school officials criminally liable for failing to report serious hate crimes to law enforcement.

Despite the relative weakness of the bills signed by the governor, the right wing, in an effort to mobilize forces to combat same-sex marriage, has decided to try to put a referendum on the ballot to overturn governor’s signature on SB 777, the bill that seeks to prevent anti-gay bias in our schools.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Karen England launched the drive. She directs Capitol Resource Institute, a conservative public policy group that focuses on family issues.

England filed a referendum petition last week against SB 777 with the state attorney general’s office, the first step in a 90-day process that requires collection of 433,971 valid voter signatures to qualify for the June ballot.

State law prohibits SB 777 from taking effect Jan. 1, as scheduled, pending completion of the referendum campaign.

Be on the lookout for signature-gatherers. My guess is that these folks will be earning lots of money per signature and thus will be somewhat deceitful in trying to collect signatures.