The Erasure of Queer History in High Schools, and the fight to get it back
LGBTQ history is American history. Just like the history of slavery is an integral part of this country’s past, so is queer history. However, many high school are still not adequately teaching queer history or queer sex education in high schools (or middle schools, but that’s an issue for a different time). For this project, we decided to try and tackle this issue head on within Santa Cruz County.
By not teaching LGBTQ history in schools, we as a society are creating a disconnect between the American people and the Queer community. Queer people do not have representation in our history books, and because of it, their power as a collective is stripped away. There is power in history, but not when it’s never taught. People who are not a part of the community are not becoming educated on the hardships that have come with being queer, or the horrendous acts of violence that kill so many black trans women every year, or even what the different letters in LGBTQ+ stand for. As a result, many people think being gay is wrong, or are simply scared of the things they don’t understand or know about. Teaching queer history would help normalize talking about the LGBTQ community, and even being a part of the community, which in turn would lead to more accepting and empathetic generations of students. We hope that our presentation acts as a call to action for other people to get out and advocate for positive change in their community as well.
