Contested Curriculum

LGBTQ History Goes to School

By Don Romesburg

SERIES: Q+ Public

Rutgers University Press

Today, many states have proposed so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bills that prohibit public school teachers from mentioning LGBTQ topics in the classroom. But a few states, like California, have taken decisive steps in the other direction. They mandate inclusive education that treats LGBTQ history as essential to the curriculum. At once a history of an evolving movement and an activist handbook, Contested Curriculum navigates the rocky path to LGBTQ-inclusive K–12 history education in the United States and recounts the fight for a curriculum that recognizes the value of queer and trans lives.

What began in fits and starts in activism and educational materials across the late twentieth century led to the passage of California’s landmark FAIR Education Act in 2011, ensuring that LGBTQ history has a place in the K–12 classroom. Historian Don Romesburg, the lead scholar who worked with advocacy organizations to pass the act, recounts the decades-long struggle to integrate LGBTQ content into history education policy, textbooks, and classrooms. Looking at California and states that followed its lead, he assesses the challenges and opportunities presented by this new way of teaching history. Romesburg’s powerful case for LGBTQ-inclusive education is all the more urgent in this era of anti-gay book bans, regressive legislation, and attempts to diminish the vital role that inclusive and honest history education should play in a democratic nation.

Reviews

A much-needed, accessibly written, and deeply insightful account of one of the key issues in America's current culture wars. John D'Emilio, author of Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood

In this accessible and powerful book, Romesburg reminds us that the long, ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ equality and justice has often happened in schools, in classrooms, and by teachers. The lesson Romesburg offers is that battles over LGBTQ+ representation in the history curriculum are ultimately disputes over whether queer and trans people matter. And history education, he argues, is an ideal place to insist that LGBTQ+ perspectives and experiences are woven into the very idea of the nation. Jen Gilbert, author of Sexuality in School: The Limits of Education

A much-needed primer on the decades-long struggle for LGBTQ history education, a first-rate lesson plan on how to improve our classrooms, and an A+ answer to the question of whether more inclusive history education can support democracy. Marc Stein, author of Queer Public History: Essays on Scholarly Activism

Contested Curriculum is a detailed chronology of the passage and implementation of the first legislation to establish LGBTQ-inclusive K–12 history education in the United States. Romesburg deftly places this California story in the national political context and fills in a heretofore missing piece of LGBTQ education history. A thorough update on the contemporary battle between inclusive and anti-LGBTQ curriculum laws leaves readers with an understanding of the importance of sound educational policy that expands students' thinking, improves school climate, and simply tells the truth about gender and sexual diversity. Karen Graves, author of Mad River, Marjorie Rowland, and the Quest for LGBTQ Teachers' Rights (Rutgers University

Contested Curriculum makes a powerful case for LGBTQ inclusion in K–12 social studies and tells a compelling story about how dedicated collective action led to that breakthrough in California. It reminds us that LGBTQ history is a necessary part of all young people's access to high-quality history instruction. Romesburg provides an insider's perspective, scholarly analysis, and a roadmap for change that will inspire readers to continue working for LGBTQ curricular inclusion, whether at the grassroots or statewide level. David M. Donahue, professor in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco

Author

DON ROMESBURG is a professor of women's and gender studies at Sonoma State University in California. He is the editor of The Routledge History of Queer America.

List of Illustrations
Series Foreword by E. G. Crichton
Introduction   Can LGBTQ History Education Save Democracy?
1       The Prehistory of LGBTQ History Education
2       The State’s the Place?: Sidelined Reforms Become Opt-In History
3       Making California FAIR (with Carolyn Laub)
4       Resource FAIR: Materials and Trainings Empower Educators (with Rick Oculto)
Conclusion   As California Goes…?
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Notes on the Art xi
Series Foreword xvii
e. g. crichton
Introduction: Can LGBTQ History
Education Save Democracy? 1
1. The Prehistory of LGBTQ History Education 27
2. The State’s the Place? Sidelined Reforms
Become Opt-In
History 55
3. Making California FAIR 95
with Carolyn Laub
4. Resource FAIR: Materials and Trainings
Empower Educators 139
with rick oculto
Conclusion: As California Goes . . . ? 177
Acknowledgments
197
Notes 201
Index 000

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