Illinois Senate votes to teach LGBT history in school - Sensationalist Headlines

The Illinois Senate has approved a bill that would require public schools to teach LGBT history. The measure passed on Wednesday on a 34-18 vote, according to The Associated Press. It mandates elementary and high schools teach a unit studying "the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country and this State." http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/386023-illinois-senate-votes-to-require-lgbt-history-curriculum-be-taught-in Illinois Senate votes to teach LGBT history in school

Hopefully it will slowly change generations to let them see its okay being lgbt. Would have helped me in highschool.

im sorry but what exactly is gay history going to even be? The sexual revolution was just in the 60s and thats still extremely recent, and I dont really think any great people throughout history had being gay as a defining character trait.

This is a really good idea. Hopefully it humanizes LGBT people for some students and causes them to appreciate the history and struggle behind the rights we've got now.

Good. Everyone should know what happened to Turing, for example. Imagine where we would be now if he didn't die prematurely.

People should be taught about history because they made important contributions to it, not because of what they want to fuck. Turing deserves to be taught because he was an amazing computer scientist and was one of the key reasons for the allied victory, not because he was gay. I don't think educating people is going to change their opinion on LGBT people. It's usually religious or cultural reasons. I understand the hardships they endured but they shouldn't be taught because they were gay, black, jewish, a woman, etc. It should be like this: "Turing is important because he made these contributions... he was also horribly treated because he was gay" not "Ok class let's learn about the gay people! Turing was gay and did this...." It seems more deemening to be taught because they were gay, not because of the contributions they made. You end up with something like the Google "American Inventors" where black and female inventors are being showcased because they were black and or a woman, not because they made amazing inventions. Why is some woman who invented hair products or a guy who made engine lubrication showcased first before inventors like Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Benjamin Franklin, Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi, etc.? https://www.google.com/search?q=american+inventors s

...which are easily instilled due to a lack of education. It seems like a pretty obvious thing that educating people when there's ignorance involved will help mould their opinion differently than if said ignorance if said ignorance was left untouched.

I wish they had this California when I was in school. As far as history is concerned, gays existed in the greek and roman ages then they reappeared in the 80s

Neat. Prejudice against LGBT is always from a place of ignorance and hateful people. At least with changes in curriculum like this we can remove ignorance from the equation.

Or, you know, actual historical events that related to LGBT matters as opposed to shoehorning it into pre-existing historical events that are already taught? Things like the Stonewall Riots, ACT UP and the entire AIDS epidemic, Harvey Milk, etc. Stuff that isn't already taught in our curriculum that has made a huge impact on the social climate of everyone today that stem from issues dealing with the rights and hardships of LGBT people.

Education has been demonstrated to work like a charm, actually.