Textbooks
may have to tell gay role
By Aaron C. Davis
Knight Ridder Newspapers
April 8, 2006
Seattle Times
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California state Senate will consider a bill
that would require schools to teach students about the contributions
gays and lesbians have made to society, an effort supporters say is an
attempt to battle discrimination and opponents say is designed to use
the classroom to get children to embrace homosexuality.
The bill, which a Senate committee approved Tuesday, would require
schools to buy textbooks "accurately" portraying "the sexual diversity
of our society."
More controversially, it could require that students hear history
lessons on "the contributions of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual
or transgender to the economic, political, and social development of
California and the United States of America."
The proposal, if it becomes law, could have far-reaching implications
by setting a precedent and because California is the nation's largest
textbook buyer and as such often sets the standards for publishers that
sell nationwide.
The bill also could bring sex wars roaring back into California state
politics in an election year in which gay-rights advocates had
purposefully relegated gay marriage to the legislative backburner and
signature gathering for propositions rolling back gay rights had begun
to slow.
"We're totally opposed to inserting sexual orientation into textbooks
in our schools. This is more than just accepting it, it's forcing our
kids to embrace it, almost celebrate it," said Karen England, executive
director of the conservative Capital Resource Institute, which thinks
teachings about sexual orientation should be left to parents.
The bill's author, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, rejected
the criticism. "We've been working since 1995 to try to improve the
climate in schools for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids, as
well as those kids who are just thought to be gay, because there is an
enormous amount of harassment and discrimination at stake."
Kuehl pointed to research she said concludes that gay and lesbian
students might do better in school, be less at risk for suicide,
skipping school, or drug and alcohol abuse if they saw their own lives
more accurately reflected in school textbooks and if the issue were
more openly discussed in classrooms.
"Teaching materials mostly contain negative or adverse views of us, and
that's when they mention us at all," said Kuehl, one of the California
Legislature's six openly gay lawmakers.
The bill expands on the state education code that already requires
inclusion in the curriculum of the historical role and contributions of
members of ethnic and cultural groups.
But central to the coming legislative floor debates will be questions
about how gay and lesbian issues might be woven into U.S. history.
"We're not suddenly going to say, 'so and so was gay' when they never
said that," Kuehl said. "But if you're teaching Langston Hughes poetry,
you get a twofer because he was admittedly gay and he was black. So you
could say he was a gay, black poet and talk about that."
Aejaie Sellers, executive director of the Billy DeFrank LGBT Center in
Santa Clara, said she thinks required gay and lesbian history lessons
for students are a fantastic idea.
"Gays throughout history should be recognized. This is not something
new, this goes back to the 18th and 17th and 16th century," she said,
adding, "Who knows that the author of 'America the Beautiful,'
Katharine Lee Bates, was gay?"
England said she doesn't really care because a person's contribution to
history doesn't hinge on their sexual orientation.
"I don't care if, or who, whatever historical figure they want to say
is gay," England said. "If we're discussing history, who someone had
sex with is inappropriate."
Whether the bill becomes law and if gay-history lessons become
mandatory might quickly become Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's call.
Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on the new bill.