Gay History in Textbooks

[APMountianMan]

California Debates Adding Gay History to Textbooks
Bill Would Require Books to Include Contributions of Homosexuals

By BRIAN ROONEY

May 12, 2006 — California is considering a change to the way it teaches history.

The state already requires mentions of the historical roles of women, African-Americans and Asians.

Today the Democratic-controlled state Senate approved a bill that would require social science textbooks to note the contributions homosexuals have made to history. It's apparently the first attempt to pass a law of this kind in the country, and of course it has sparked a furor.

The law is sponsored by one of six openly gay members of the California legislature.

"All we are saying is let us also be reflected in history accurately," Democratic state Senate member Sheila Kuehl said.

The bill would add the contributions of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to the "total development of California and the United States," she said.

Kuehl became a familiar face in the country 45 years ago on the popular television show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." She says children should be taught homosexuals are part of life and history.

"You could study James Baldwin's novels and they say James Baldwin was an African-American writer, but they could say he was an African-American gay writer," Kuehl said.


Positive Message or Assault on Free Speech?

The president of a pro-family organization who watched from the state Senate gallery when the bill passed today called this a war on families and children.

"The politicians have forced sexual indoctrination upon kids as young as kindergarten," Campaign for Children and Families president Randy Thomasson said.

Proponents say the bill, which states the material should be age-appropriate, sends an important message to gay children.

"When students see themselves reflected in the curriculum, they feel like they belong at school. They stay at school, and they get an education," said Kevin Jennings of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.

What are your thoughts?

Read the full story here: California Gay History Debate (http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1956254&page=1)

:cool:

[JohnnyV]

AP Mountain Man,

I think it's great to have sexual diversity in the curriculum, but I have to admit I'm a little worried about the way they're using the term homosexual. If they're going to start claiming that Walt Whitman, Alexander the Great, and Michelangelo Buonarroti were homosexual, I would not support it, because those people were bisexual, like most of the famous men in the ancient world.

The quote about James Baldwin is a great example of the problem -- Baldwin often resisted labeling himself homosexual because he preferred to leave himself open to both sexes.

It's good to support gay and lesbian rights in the face of so much discrimination, but as bisexuals, I think we're in a position to see the pitfalls of endorsing "homosexual" categories too readily in the name of liberation.

If the curricular changes are being used to affirm the gay movement's belief that sexual orientation is biologically determined at birth and divided into two mutually exclusive categories of gay and straight, I do not support the changes. My sister, who is an educator in California, has had long conversations with me about it and I gave her the same cautionary note.

I guess my problem is that I don't want to have to choose between a fundamentalist homophobic view of history, and a eugenics-based biological view of sexual diversity -- both erase bisexuality, erase me, and distort history.

Instead of forcing educators to identify people from the past as homosexual -- which opens the doors to thousands of research problems and puts teachers in a horrible bind -- why not have frank discussions about the variety of expressions of interpersonal love?

I must confess that when I teach Walt Whitman and James Baldwin, I do NOT label them as gay to my students. I discuss their homoerotic poetry in very frank terms, and I explain that neither man lived in a time when gay and straight meant what the terms mean to us. I let the students then draw their own conclusions, as long as they are forced to acknowledge that both writers expressed clear erotic desire for other men. I do the same with Sappho.

J

[APMountianMan]

AP Mountain Man,

I think it's great to have sexual diversity in the curriculum, but I have to admit I'm a little worried about the way they're using the term homosexual. If they're going to start claiming that Walt Whitman, Alexander the Great, and Michelangelo Buonarroti were homosexual, I would not support it, because those people were bisexual, like most of the famous men in the ancient world.

The quote about James Baldwin is a great example of the problem -- Baldwin often resisted labeling himself homosexual because he preferred to leave himself open to both sexes.

It's good to support gay and lesbian rights in the face of so much discrimination, but as bisexuals, I think we're in a position to see the pitfalls of endorsing "homosexual" categories too readily in the name of liberation.

If the curricular changes are being used to affirm the gay movement's belief that sexual orientation is biologically determined at birth and divided into two mutually exclusive categories of gay and straight, I do not support the changes. My sister, who is an educator in California, has had long conversations with me about it and I gave her the same cautionary note.

I guess my problem is that I don't want to have to choose between a fundamentalist homophobic view of history, and a eugenics-based biological view of sexual diversity -- both erase bisexuality, erase me, and distort history.

Instead of forcing educators to identify people from the past as homosexual -- which opens the doors to thousands of research problems and puts teachers in a horrible bind -- why not have frank discussions about the variety of expressions of interpersonal love?

I must confess that when I teach Walt Whitman and James Baldwin, I do NOT label them as gay to my students. I discuss their homoerotic poetry in very frank terms, and I explain that neither man lived in a time when gay and straight meant what the terms mean to us. I let the students then draw their own conclusions, as long as they are forced to acknowledge that both writers expressed clear erotic desire for other men. I do the same with Sappho.

J

Damn! Well said. You stole my thunder.

:cool:

[wanderingrichard]

oh, this is definitely NOT gonna sit well with the radical christian fundamentalists. come to think of it, i seriously doubt whether it will sit well with any of the 3 main religions here in the US. [too bad we don't teach more religous tolerance, or hell, just plain tolerance and acceptance, in our homes and our school systems, but thats another matter altogether. we're dealing with sexuality here.]

in a way i can see this being vetoed by the current governor there. if it makes it's way onto his desk at all. face it, even tho he came from two different fields of work to get where he is today, both of which have many homosexual members, he's too consevative to allow this to go into law.

too bad they are just doing califonia history, and not world history. then they could add people like lord byron, ( military) caligua, arthur ashe,(sports) kd lang,( music) douglas adams, (sci-fi) the list is endless.

[grizzle45]

What Johnny V said.