Direct from the Source: Teaching LGBTQ+ History with Primary Sources

No study of history is complete if it does not include LGBTQ+ history. LGBTQ+ themes are present in every time period and LGBTQ+ individuals made meaningful contributions in every era. Yet, the majority of middle and high school students rarely learn this history. This detracts from their education in ways of which they aren’t aware and stymies their ability to fully understand and interact with events and issues in the present. The movement to include LGBTQ+ history in social studies gained momentum in the last decade, but recent policies and actions endanger this progress. This poster session, therefore, asserts that curriculum censorship laws that prohibit teaching LGBTQ+ history are harmful and that the specter of such laws has a chilling effect on inclusive, representative curriculum. In response, the session posits that focusing on historical sources and strategies to effectively integrate them offer teachers the opportunity to authentically include LGBTQ+ history in the face of this opposition.

The passage of California’s FAIR Education Act in 2011 catalyzed a grassroots movement generating quality LGBTQ+ history curriculum; the enactment of LGBTQ+ curriculum laws in four more states eight years later–for a total of seven by 2021– seemed to indicate that advocates for inclusivity were on the precipice of more significant success. Despite these top-down initiatives, though, LGBTQ+ history does not appear in most states’ standards. Moreover, formidable legal and moral obstacles existed in the most conservative states, four of which–as of 2020–maintained laws prohibiting all but negative representations of the LGBTQ+ community. These laws, which seemed on the decline, were given new life in 2021 as states across the country proposed and/or passed curriculum censorship laws, began banning books that centered LGBTQ+ characters or topics, and reinvigorated Anita Bryant’s call to eliminate LGBTQ+ “grooming” and indoctrination in schools. The censorship laws were effective in restricting teachers’ academic freedom and instilling a climate of fear. They had an unintended effect as well: teachers and historians, now more aware of curricular omissions, clamored for information and strategies. Curriculum censorship, then, contributed to an awakening. This session will demonstrate these connections and the harmful and unexpected effects of the conservative push to censor teachers and classrooms.

The poster will visually demonstrate the emergence and increasing prominence of curriculum censorship laws and “Don’t Say Gay/Trans” laws through maps and headlines; the concurrent decrease in LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum and resources in schools through charts and graphs; and various historical sources that convey this history, are accessible to students and teachers, and can be meaningfully integrated into K-12 classes including images, brief text sources, and websites. It will be organized in sections that indicate the significance of each of these factors on their own as well as the way that they interact and impact upon each other. The poster will also feature a QR code through which conference attendees can access the resources and additional information on each topic.

This session is co-sponsored by the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History.