The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center is looking to bring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history into the classroom, as the Center's Project SPIN has developed LGBT lesson plans to be available for integration into high school history curriculum in the LA public school system.
In conjunction with ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, the oldest active LGBTQ organization in the US, Project SPIN will pull images and historical items from ONE's library to be "used to construct supplemental lesson plans covering significant historical events and figures from LGBT history," according to a press release sent to The Huffington Post. The move comes after the passing of the California FAIR Education Act in 2011, which states that public schools in California include the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in classes.
“The efforts of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Project SPIN and ONE Archives to make LGBT-integrated and inclusive lesson plans available to all teachers are truly groundbreaking. It’s empowering for all students to see themselves, their families, and their community reflected in the curriculum,” stated Judy Chiasson, Program Coordinator, Office of Human Relations, Diversity and Equity, Los Angeles Unified School District, in the press release.
Joseph Hawkins, the Director of ONE Archives, noted:
What better way to kick off LGBT History Month than to ensure that the contributions made by our LGBT pioneers are not erased from the history books. We hope that the LGBT inclusive curriculum we are developing for Los Angeles County schools will be seen as a model for the rest of the nation to use when teaching American history.
The inclusion of LGBT history will alert students that October is LGBT History Month and hopefully bring the historical significance of the LGBT community to the head of the class.
Click through the slideshow below to see some of the images from the ONE Archives.
Before You Go
