Both Massachusetts and Illinois have recently taken steps towards including the history and achievements of LGBTQ people—and the authentic telling of their lives—in the states’ education curricula.
Massachusetts schools will have access to a new curriculum on LGBTQ-themed history, English, and health, developed by teachers working with the Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students and the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth. The curriculum, to be released this summer, will include lessons on events like the Stonewall Riots, writings by queer authors, and “will also feature lessons like how Nick Carraway’s love for Jay Gatsby may have influenced themes in The Great Gatsby,” reports the Boston Herald. These curriculum units will not be required, but will be available to districts that want to use them.
And the Illinois Senate is considering a bill that would add the contributions of LGBT people to those of African Americans and people from 15 ethnic groups that must be taught in the history curriculum. Obviously, there is overlap among those categories, but as the Chicago Sun-Times explained in an editorial, a discussion of Bayard Rustin’s contribution to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington is incomplete without talking about his sexual orientation, because “Rustin’s sexual orientation, at a time when most gay men felt the need to be deeply closeted, no doubt gave him an even greater understanding of what it was to be oppressed.” A recent advocacy day brought people to the Illinois capitol to talk in support of the bill with legislators. Arguments against the bill are being spouted by the far right, claiming this amounts to “sex ed” and “indoctrination.” Let us hope that more sensible minds prevail.
California has set the example. In November, the state approved groundbreaking LGBT-inclusive history and social studies textbooks to support legislation that requires schools to teach about the political, economic, and social contributions of LGBT people and people with disabilities.
The reasons for such inclusion are many—factual accuracy and thoroughness, as in the example above, but also to give LGBTQ students (and those with LGBTQ parents) critical images of people like themselves and families like their own. As Victor Salvo, founder and director of the Legacy Project, says in the video below from the Sun-Times, “If you can inspire one kid to realize that somebody like them did something that matters, my job is done.” Equally important is that an LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum will also give non-LGBTQ students a better understanding of those unlike themselves. This will help build respect and reduce instances of harassment and bullying.
I’ll be eagerly watching these efforts (and more in other states, I hope) as they move forward.