California History Textbooks Now Include 'LGBT Heroes'
Adoption of the textbooks by California school districts is not mandatory, but participants in an EWA panel, “Covering LGBTQ+ Issues in the Classroom,” said they expect the resources to be welcomed by teachers who have been unsure which historical figures to include and how to make fair representations in the classroom.
“Now we can mention Sally Ride was a known lesbian with a partner of 27 years,” said Dominic Le Fort, executive director of Queer Education, a nonprofit founded last year to help families and schools meet the objectives of the law. “The purpose of this is not just to put this information in front of queer children. It’s to be of benefit campuswide.”
The California effort has resonance for education writers in other parts of the country, where many schools are working to make classrooms more inclusive. Illinois recently passed a law mandating teaching the roles of gays and...
