LGBT Education in Schools

Bringing LGBTQIA+ History into your Classroom

LGBT education in schools is an essential part of education but you may have reservations about bringing LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, +) history into your classroom. Part one of this post will cover three reasons why you should bring LGBTQIA+ history into your classroom. The second part of this post will provide simple tips, like hanging LGBTQ+ affirming posters on your walls, to create an LGBTQIA+ inclusive classroom. Here are three reasons to include LGBTQIA+ history in your classroom.

#1 LGBT Education: We Mattered Then, We Matter Now

If we believe that LGBTQIA+ people matter, then LGBT education in schools must matter. The history of the community and the lives of individuals past and present have to matter. What are we demonstrating to our students by not including these histories? One conclusion your students may draw is that they don’t matter. When LGBTQIA+ history is excluded, or the identities of historic figures are glossed over, students might infer that LGBTQIA+ people cannot be successful or they are successful in spite of their identities.

What is the impact on learning and success when students feel they don’t matter? What is the impact of not being seen? By excluding LGBTQIA+ histories we are also saying that our own comfort, the comfort of a principal, or a parent is more important than the lives of LGBTQIA+ students. We are saying to students,”You must make yourself small so that others don’t feel uncomfortable.” We are placing a higher value on the comfort of a few people than on the lives of our students. LGBT education in schools is not a teacher issue. Our administrators, districts, communities, and states need to be on the forefront of this work. So often they are not so teachers are again left to make do. I am honored to be writing this piece as a guest blogger.

#2 LGBT Inclusive Curriculum: Not the First, Not the Last

LGBTQIA+ people have always existed. Unfortunately, many people today, queer people included, do not know this. Because LGBTQIA+ history and people have been ignored and excluded by the US government, our nation, like many other nations, has suffered from the erasure of queer lives. One of the ugliest consequences of this erasure is the idea that queerness is a new trend and has no past.

The Lavender Scare, one of the most blatant examples of queer exclusion and persecution in U.S. history, began under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1953 Eisenhower announced that gay men and lesbians “posed a threat to national security because they were vulnerable to blackmail and considered to have weak moral characters,” writes David K. Johnson. During the next 40 years the United States government executed a systematic campaign to hunt down and fire all government employees suspected of being homosexual. Historians estimate that between 5,000 and 10,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the Lavender Scare. It is hard to calculate just how many people were impacted by the U.S. campaign as it also served as a strong deterrent to other LGBTQIA+ people who may have pursued government employment. Learn how to teach productive listening and discussion skills. Check out this blog post HERE.

LGBT Education: Colonial Legacy

European colonialism has rewritten many histories. The roots of the ideal of a gender binary are colonial. Homosexuality as something unnatural is a colonial ideal as well. One clear example of this is seen through the establishment of anti-LGBTQIA+ laws throughout the commonwealth. As of 2020, 50% of countries with anti-LGBTQIA+ laws on the books are in the commonwealth. This is a direct result of British colonialism. Many of these laws are pulled directly from British penal codes. 

In America we are very good at forgetting. We are talented at willfully ignoring events and histories. We forget that Thomas Jefferson defended his right to own human beings. We forget that the life and liberty presented in the US Constitution are only for a certain few and that the pursuit of happiness guaranteed to some is based on the exploitation of others. 

Your students deserve to know complicated histories. Our students have complicated lives. It is comforting to know that others have had complicated lives too. It is important to know that Thomas Jefferson wasn’t a product of his time but a person who chose his own privilege and power over the lives of other human beings. It is comforting to know that while Jefferson was upholding white supremacy Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, John Brown, Harriet Tubman, and so many others were actively engaging in abolitionism. 

#3 LGBT Education in Schools: We Deserve to Know What We’re Walking Into

Your students deserve to know that the social justice for which they are fighting has never existed in the United States of America. Your students deserve to know that what we are trying to create is entirely new in this country. Your students deserve to know that progress has not been linear. They deserve to know that just as there has been racial progress and racist progress there has also been progress on LGBTQIA+ rights as well as progress against LGBTQIA+ rights. Students deserve to have a space to talk about their lives at school. They deserve to see themselves in their curriculum. Check out this great teaching resource on the Stonewall Rebellions HERE. I will be appearing as a guest blogger with a second part to this post in the next few weeks.

One of the greatest honors I have as an educator is to walk alongside my students learning, grappling, mourning, celebrating, and engaging with life. My wish for you is that you find space to connect with your students in a real and honest way. My wish for you is that you have the same honor of walking with your students through a confusing, complicated, and enraging world. I hope you become engaged and engaging, that you mourn and you celebrate, that you make space. My call to you is urgent. Hold your administrators, districts, and communities accountable. Take up the work.

It’s been a pleasure guest blogging for It’s a Teacher Thing. Come visit me on TPT!

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