The California
senate passed a bill Thursday that would make the
historical contributions of LGBT Americans part of the
public-school curriculum in the state. The measure,
believed to be the first of its kind in the country,
still needs to be passed by the state assembly and
signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and would not take
effect until 2012, the Los Angeles Times reports.
"Even though we passed an antiharassment bill
seven years ago, it's still pretty obvious that
there's a hostile environment for kids who are gay or
lesbian--or even thought to be gay or lesbian,"
Democratic senator Sheila Kuehl, the bill's author and
one of the legislature's six openly gay members, told
the Times. "Part of that stems from the fact
that nobody reads about any positive examples."
The bill would require state textbooks to
incorporate LGBT history, from acknowledging the
sexuality of cultural figures like Harlem Renaissance
writer Langston Hughes to discussing the gay rights
movement, which would then be used in social studies
courses in an "age-appropriate" way to examine the
"role and contributions" that LGBT people have made to
the "economic, political, and social development" of
California and the United States. If the measure becomes
law, the state board of education will be responsible
for implementing it and setting educational guidelines.
"If you're teaching social movements in schools
and you talk about the United Farm Workers and Cesar
Chavez and you talk about the civil rights movement
and Martin Luther King and you talk about the women's
suffrage movement, to leave out the gay rights movement
seems glaring," Geoffrey Kors, executive director of
Equality California, told the Times.
All but three Democrats voted for the bill,
while all 14 Republican senators voted against it.
(The Advocate)
