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Filed under: In The News, Education: Teens
Law requires textbooks to recognize contributions of gay Americans. Credit: Getty Images
So was Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Francis Bacon and a lot of other historical figures. Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Cole Porter and others were a lot more than "reportedly" ya know.
Now California textbooks can legally recognize the existence of Cole Porter and Walt Whitman. The California Assembly passed a bill to add the historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans to the state's public school textbooks.
USA Today reports this makes California the only state to require including LGBT people in textbooks.
The bills adds LGBT Americans as well as people with disabilities to a list of groups (such as African American, Asian Americans and Native Americans) who debunk the theory that John Wayne and Chuck Norris built the country on their own.
Speaking of white heterosexual action heroes, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill in 2006. A spokesman for current Gov. Jerry Brown tells USA Today the governor has no comment on what action he will take on the bill.
State Sen. Mark Leno, the San Francisco Democrat who introduced the bill, tells USA Today excluding LGBT Americans or other groups from textbooks amounts to "selectively censoring history."
The paper reports many people supported the bill as a way provide role models for LGBT students who are bullied for the sexual orientation.
Opponents says legislators ought to stay out of the classroom. "I don't think this helps the teaching of history," Chris Norby, a Republican assemblyman from Orange County, tells USA Today. "I think it's a distraction."
There's no reason to get too worked up either way. USA Today reports state textbooks will not be updated until 2015 -- if then -- because of budget cuts.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
7-14-2011 @ 4:55PM
Sara said...Seriously? I mean really seriously? My son, who is 10, is in the gifted and talented class at his elementary school. They did an entire quarter on Leonardo da Vinci. On a few web sites when we googled him it mention things about young men but really is that what the man was about? Would he have been any less brilliant had he slept with young women? Would we care or have it mentioned? I think that everyone should have a right to marry and love who they choose, I think it should be discussed openly in the schools, however it should not say George Washington, First President of the United States who was homo or heterosexual. Who the bleep cares what Georgie did behind closed doors!?!?! It has no bearing on the important contributions they made to society. If you wish to be equal, stop separating.
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7-11-2011 @ 11:38AM
lyn and Mrs Lyn levens said...According to a shocking news report, California legislators have enacted legislation that gives the state the dubious distinction of being the first state in the nation to require public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in their social studies curriculum. ... The bill, SB 48, passed on a party-line vote, adds lesbian, gay, bisexual and so-called transgendered people as well as those with physical or mental disabilities to the list of groups that schools must include in the lessons. It also would prohibit material that reflects adversely on gays. ... It will prove instructive to see how the state's lawmakers go about the job of implementing this absurd legislation. ... The matter of the content of school textbooks has long been a controversial subject, but until now it has never reached the point where specific parts of the population are singled out for preferential treatment, especially when the segment of the population is distinguished solely by their sexual preferences." --columnist Michael Reagan
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