U.S.A.: Queer educators unveil 10 new LGBTQ+ lessons for California public schools

A group of local educators and LGBTQ+ organisations in California, U.S.A., are introducing 10 new LGBTQ+ history lessons for the state’s K-12 public schools under the theme ‘Pride, Resistance, Joy: Teaching Intersectional LGBTQ+ Stories of California and Beyond.’

According to ‘LGBTQ Nation’, these new lessons focus on intersectional queer and trans activism, anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience, spanning from Asian-American Pacific-Islander (AAPI) organising to queer Latino activism, queer immigration efforts, civil disobedience, queer zine culture, and Native American HIV/AIDS activism. They are based on community archives and lived experiences, according to the coalition. The curriculum was developed by local K-12 teachers in partnership with the LGBTQ+ history organisation One Institute, the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, the UCLA History-Geography Project, and the queer student support program Out for Safe Schools at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. This collaborative partnership has been creating LGBTQ+ history curriculum for state schools since 2018.

The lessons were revealed on Thursday and are in accordance with the state’s 2011 Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, which mandates public schools to include the historical contributions of LGBTQ+ Americans in history lessons and classroom textbooks.

Materials for lesson plans provided by the aforementioned organisations show that a kindergarten lesson explores, “What are some ways we can show how to be a strong community member?” An 8th grade U.S. History lesson asks, “To what extent did historical figures agree or disagree with ‘all men are created equal’ during their activism?”

A 9th grade Ethnic Studies lesson asks, “What role did community organizations play in supporting queer AAPI [Asian-American and Pacific Islander] people in the 1980s and 1990s?” A 12th grade U.S. Government lesson investigates, “How did LGBTQ+ immigrants push for more inclusive immigration policies in the 1970s and 1980s?”

Currently available high school lesson plans include topics on queer activist and poet Audre Lorde, AIDS & HIV activism, gay racial civil rights organiser Bayard Rustin, queerness in 1920s and 1930s Hollywood, pioneering San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, transgender-inclusive German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, the impact of urbanisation on alternative family structures, and more.

In a statement, Trevor Ladner, Director of Education Programs at One Institute, said, “The FAIR Education Act affirms students’ right to study the pride, resistance, and joy of LGBTQ+ history and culture. These lesson plans equip K-12 teachers with standards-aligned resources and effective practices to teach intersectional LGBTQ+ histories,”

Peta Lindsay, Associate Director of the UCLA History-Geography Project, stated, “LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and families are essential members of our communities, and LGBTQ+ history is an essential part of our shared history. Every student deserves access to empowering LGBTQ+ history in schools.” The landmark legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, was introduced by then-State Sen. Mark Leno (D), and signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown (D).

Historian Don Romesburg, the leading scholar who collaborated with advocacy organisations to pass the act, served as director of a committee to develop the act’s original curriculum framework.

Romesburg and his committee of 20 scholars — all experts in different areas of LGBTQ+, U.S.A., and world history — meticulously reviewed the state’s curriculum to suggest ways to incorporate LGBTQ+ material based on current research and age-appropriateness. Their framework included not only famous LGBT historical figures but also encouraged students to think critically about family structures, gender roles, and institutional oppressions throughout history.

Under the current framework, 2nd grade social studies classes learn about how LGBTQ+ families coexist with families with adoptive parents, step-parents, and immigrant parents. In 4th-grade California history, students study famous 19th-century stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, a western pioneer who lived and dressed as a man but was later discovered to have been assigned a female gender at birth.

“This is a great time for critical thinking,” Romesburg said, “to get people to think about birth-assigned gender and why someone would dress like [a man] in the Gold Rush era of the West.”

In 5th grade Early American history classes, lessons highlight how two-spirit shamans and multi-parent families in indigenous American tribes changed due to colonisation. In 8th grade, students of 19th-century U.S.A. history discuss how Black people and women forged their own families in response to slavery and industrialisation.

Social science electives for 9th graders incorporate mentions of famous lesbian and bisexual women, with ethnic studies classes highlighting well-known queer people of colour. Modern world history classes for 10th graders cover the persecution of gay people during the Holocaust.

11th-grade modern U.S.A. history classes examine the evolution of modern LGBTQ+ communities throughout historic events such as the Harlem Renaissance, WWII, and the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s. They also discuss the persecution of sexual and gender minorities by the medical community, the U.S.A. military, the U.S.A. government, the religious right, and during the AIDS epidemic and current LGBTQ+ court cases.

Over the years, the state has trained educators on incorporating LGBTQ+ material into classes and advocating for textbook and educational material providers to create LGBTQ+-inclusive materials. As California is a major textbook market, it significantly influences the country’s textbook materials, encouraging producers to develop textbooks aligned with California’s new standards, likely affecting textbooks in smaller states across the U.S.A.

Addressing allegations of “sexual brainwashing,” Romesburg commented, “It’s a contemporary reality that there’s a modern LGBT rights movement and that LGBT people exist. You don’t have to take a political view on whether you approve of that to know that it has a history and that history is something that all students should have access to.”

He continued, “One of the things that’s most exciting is there are many educators in California eager to include LGBT content in their teaching, but they haven’t known how. And this provides them a substantial roadmap to do this in elementary, middle, and high school. It’s utterly transformative and truly history-making.”