Ruth Asawa School to offer course on LGBT History
A San Francisco public high school is ready to launch an LGBT history class in the new school year.
Ruth Asawa School of the Arts is going to be one of the few public schools across America that will offer this class.
The curriculum will include topics such as the gay rights movement, AIDS crisis, and the Stonewall Riots.
Leader of the course Lyndsey Schlax said, “This is history. This is an experience that happened. How can we not teach history?”
The class will also be tailored to include San Francisco’s own gay heritage including how World War 2 help to set up the gay scene in the city.
“It has to do with how the war ended – people ending up in San Francisco after. People finding each other. People not necessarily wanting to return to where they came from.”
The curriculum was supposed to launch back in 2010 but when the recession hit the school budget took it hard.
However back on track the funding has returned and Ms. Schlax has been given the money for 40 audio and video players making her course multimedia.
This means it will be able to focus on how Disney villain’s can often have speech patterns associated with gay men, leading on to a discussion on the use of gay stereotypes in Hollywood.
A member of the school board, Sandra Fewer, has discussed how she wants schemes and classes such as this set up in every school district and not to confined to art schools.
“As the mother of a gay child, I’m very sensitive to the issues of our LGBT youth,” she said. The course offers “a deeper understanding. It separates fact from fiction.”
Representatives of the school have clearly stated that they are not teaching “gay sex 101” There is nothing do with sex, another board member stated: “People always think it’s about sex. It’s not about sex.”
Words Bethany Mosettig, @bethanymosettig
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