This document provides an overview of an introductory webinar on teaching LGBT history. It outlines the webinar structure, schedule covering topics like social movements, historical events from the 1920s-1950s, and related legislation. It discusses the focus on LGBT history in the California history framework and reasons for teaching this history, like creating more inclusive schools. An overview of LGBT history from ancient times to the 1900s is also presented.

1. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
Webinar 1:
Intro to LGBT History
“Teaching LGBT History in Schools”
Rob Darrow, Ed.D.
June 2018
www.RobDarrow.us

2. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
Webinar Structure
• Lecture / Discussion about Topic
• Interactive Activity
• Final Word from participants

3. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
Webinar Schedule
• June 12: Social Movements and Teaching LGBT
History
• June 19: Harlem Renaissance (1920s) and the
Lavender Scare (1950s)
• June 26: Legislation, Laws and Amendments
related to LGBT History
• July 3: No Webinar – Happy “Independence Day”
• July 10: Transgender History
• July 17: Presentations (All participate)

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History Course.
6/6/2018
This is a Safe Space

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Course Focus
• LGBT history in the California History/Social
Science Framework
– Primarily U.S. History
• If you teach world history or literature or
something other than U.S. History, explore
those topics in this course
• Teachers at every level enhance lessons with new
information
• Webinar only people: Share something back

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History Course.
6/6/2018
A couple of Truths
• Yes, there is an LGBT history
(it was hidden for many years)
• Few teachers (or anyone) has been taught
about LGBT history in school
• Students are more engaged in school and
learning when they see themselves in the
curriculum
• Integrated vs. stand alone lessons better

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History Course.
6/6/2018
A reality.
A difference between:
➢ Teaching LGBT history
➢ Advocating a lifestyle
➢ Promoting a religion
Note: Teachers have taught about Puritanism or
Muslim for years in history courses, but we don’t
promote it

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Why teach
LGBT History?
• More engaged learners
• More inclusive schools / classrooms
• All people have a his/her-story to share
• LGBT history is American history
• It’s the law (FAIR Education Act)

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History Course.
6/6/2018
California Laws related to
schools and LGBT students
• 2018 – Non-Binary designation on birth
certificates and driver’s licenses
• 2016 – Suicide Prevention Policies in
Schools
• 2015 – California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA):
Sex Ed and HIV education must be
inclusive.
• 2013 –School Success and Opportunity Act:
Transgender youth
• 2011 –Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and
Respectful (FAIR) Act. LGBT history in
curriculum.

10. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
A little history:
History Curriculum in Ca
• 1998: New Ca History Standards – first state to adopt
such standards. New textbooks.
• 2010: Common Core Standards Adopted.
• 2011: Fair Education Act Passed. Added Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Americans to the curriculum
– especially related to history.
• 2016: State Board of Education adopts new State
History Framework (LGBT history inclusive)
• 2017: State Board of Education adopts K-8 History
Textbooks
• 2018-2020 – School Districts may purchase new
history textbooks

11. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
What is
• History is the “study of the past”
• History is the “study of change and
development in society over time”
• “Historiography” – how history has
been produced
• Generally what is written in books
?

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History Course.
6/6/2018
in California schools
• History content taught in schools:
– 4th – Local state history up to about 1970
• California state in 1850, gold rush, native Americans, missions,
understanding branches of government
– 5th – U.S. History: Exploration, new nation to about 1850
• Explorers, colonies, Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary
War, U.S. Constitution, immigration)
– 6th-7th – World History early civilizations BC – 1500
• Ancient Greece, Rome, India, China, Middle Ages, Renaissance
– 8th – U.S. History: Founding of nation to Civil War – 1870
– 10th – World History: 1700-1980
– 11th – U.S. History: Founding of nation to 2000
– 12th – U.S. Government, Laws and Amendments

13. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
What is curriculum?
• Printed standards and framework (adopted in every
subject in California by State Board of Education)
• What the teacher says (lecture notes)
– Teacher developed worksheets / assessments
• Printed and digital content used with students
– Textbooks
– Literature
– Primary source documents
• Most teachers have a “curriculum calendar”
of when they teach what
(few history teachers get to 21st century history)

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History Course.
6/6/2018
History Curriculum
in California
• History Standards
– adopted in 1998 – not updated
• History Framework
– updated in 2016
• New History Textbooks (K-8)
– adopted by State Board of Education in 2017
(most schools purchase new textbooks K-12 –
roughly $80 per textbook)

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Ca History
Framework
• All state curriculum directed by state
legislature and laws
• Approved by State Board of Education
appointed by legislature and Governor
• The framework is a “floor” not a “ceiling” in
what may be taught

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History Course.
6/6/2018
State History
Framework –
2nd – 5th Grade:
LGBT History
• 2nd: During family unit, families may be two
dads or two moms or a dad and a mom or
one parent, etc.
• California Gold Rush – Majority of miners
were men.
• Native Americans and Two-Spirit Traditions

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History Course.
6/6/2018
State History Framework –
8th Grade Content: LGBT History
• The Constitution and the 14th Amendment
• Westward Movement and Gender Diversity in
Frontier Life (1800-1870)
• Native Americans, Gender Roles and Two-
Spirit People
• Cross-Dressing or “Passing Women” in the
Civil War
• Family life in slave culture

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History Course.
6/6/2018
State History Framework
11th Grade Content:
LGBT History
(Most content here)
• Romantic Friendships Increase Women’s
Rights (1890-1930)
• Gays in the Military from the Civil War to
Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (1860-2010)
• Harlem Renaissance: As Gay as it was Black
(1917-1935)
• The Lavender Scare and the 1950s (1918-
2011)
• Amendments, Laws and Court Decisions
Expand Equality (1868-2015)

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History Course.
6/6/2018
LGBT History:
What do most
people know?
• 1969 – Stonewall Riots
• Harvey Milk
• Ellen coming out
• Probably generational
• What else?

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History Course.
6/6/2018
The Bottom Line
• We want all students to be
successful in school – to be
engaged and happy – and to be
college and career ready.
• If school is safe and affirming for
LGBTQ students – it will be safe
and affirming for all students.
• More cost effective when students
graduate from high school

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History Course.
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Does LGBT
History Exist?
• Yes
• What’s the proof?
• Not written down until 1976
• Since then, many historians viewed
primary sources with a new lens
• “Queer Theory” or “Queer Studies”
named in 1990s

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Jonathan Ned Katz (1976)
Gay American History
Lesbians and Gays in the
U.S.A.
John D’Emilio (1983)
Sexual Politics, Sexual
Communities: The Making of
a Homosexual Minority in the
United States, 1940-1970

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History Course.
6/6/2018
A little history:
LGBTQ Terms and Year
First Used
• L = Lesbian (1732)
• G = Gay (1955)
• B = Bisexual (1960)
• T = Transgender (1990)
• Q = Queer / Questioning (1894, 1990)

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History Course.
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A quick overview of
LGBT History in history

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Ancient History
• Ancient History – Greek and Roman
culture: Evidence of same sex
relationships, pederasty (sex between a
man and a boy).
• Native American Culture: Evidence and
acceptance of same sex relationships
and two-spirit people

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History Course.
6/6/2018
1600s
• Settling of America.
– Gender norms and sodomy laws established –
punishable by death. (Sodomy is anal or oral
sex, generally between males).
– Puritans and Quakers religious beliefs
• Salem witch trials (witches were women)
take place.
• 1624 – Richard Cornish of the Virginia
Colony is tried and hanged for sodomy.

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History Course.
6/6/2018
1700s
• Revolutionary War.
– General George Washington tolerant of sodomy –
dismissal rather than death.
– His chief of staff was Baron von Steuben, most
likely a gay man.
• Slavery lead to various forms of family.
– 1789 – Narrative, “ The Interesting Narrative of the
Life of Olaudah Equiano” describes same sex
relationships within the slave culture.
• France decriminalizes homosexuality.

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History Course.
6/6/2018
1800s
• Westward movement, gold in California.
– 90% of those moving west or mining
for gold were men.
• 1849 – Jason Chamberlain and
John Chaffee – lifelong miners and
partners.
• President James Buchanan and his friend Willam Rufus
King, referred to by others as “Miss Nancy” (an early
term for an effeminate or gay man).
• Civil War – estimated that 500 women dressed as men –
one of the most famous was Albert Cashier.
• 1868 – Fourteenth amendment ratified “no state shall
deprive any person of life, liberty or property…”
• 1890 – Hull house established by Jane Addams and her
partner, Mary Rozet Smith.
• “Boston Marriages” and “romantic friendships”

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History Course.
6/6/2018
1900s
• Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin, Germany researches same
sex relationships, lectures around the world until Hitler
came into power and Hirschfeld’s research and books
burned in 1933. Anti-gay laws in Germany.
• Gay men wore the pink triangle in concentration camps.
• Military laws forbid gays or lesbians to join except when
there was a need. World War II in 1940.
• 1920s- Harlem Renaissance “As gay as it was black”
• 1948 – Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior of the
Human Male in Indiana.
• 1950 – Mattachine Society, gay organization, formed in
Los Angeles

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History Course.
6/6/2018
1900s, Part 2
• 1950s – Red Scare and Lavender Scare.
• American Psychiatric Association: homosexuality is a
sociopathic personality disturbance that could be treated
– in place until 1973.
• 1953 – Executive Order 10450 – Eisenhower banned
homosexuals from working in federal government
because they were a security risk
– in place until 1993 – Don’t Ask Don’t Tell bill - Clinton.
– 5000 people released including Frank Kameny.
• 1955 – Daughters of Bilitis formed in San Francisco
• 1958 – Supreme Court affirms first amendment free
speech in “One v. Olesen” – publication of the Mattachine
Society, first gay men’s organization.
• 1961 – Illinois first state to remove sodomy laws.
• 1963 - Frank Kameny starts protesting in front of White
House with the sign “Gay is Good”.

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History Course.
6/6/2018
1900s, Part 3
• 1966 – Compton’s Cafeteria Riots in San Francisco
• 1969 – Stonewall Riots in New York
• 1974 – Elaine Noble, first openly gay person to be elected state
legislature in Massachusetts
• 1976 – Book published: Gay American History
• 1977 – Harvey Milk elected County Supervisor in San Francisco
• 1978 – Proposition 6 in California defeated
• 1979 – First March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights
• 1981 – AIDS epidemic begins.
• 1994 – Greg Louganis, Olympic champion diver, comes out as gay
• 1997 – Ellen DeGeneres, during her TV show, comes out as
lesbian

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History Course.
6/6/2018
2000s
Some LGBT favorable legislation and laws
• 2003 - Supreme Court overturns sodomy laws
(Lawrence v. Kansas)
• 2010 - Repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in military
• 2008 - Proposition 8 passes in California – defines
marriage between a man and a woman
• 2015 - Same sex marriage affirmed by Supreme Court
(Obergefell v. Hodges)
• 2011 - California first state to pass legislation
requiring the teaching of LGBT history “FAIR
Education Act”

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Curriculum as a Mirror / Window
• Emily Style, 1988
Article

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Curriculum as a Mirror / Window
• Mirror - reflecting who
you are
• Window - looking at
others experiences
• How do you provide
“mirrors” in your
classroom or
organization?

35. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
Some conclusions
• U.S. history largely told by white men
• Various perspectives important – women,
African American, Latinx, Asian, etc.
• LGBT history in context of other social
rights movements (women, civil rights,
Latinx, etc.)
• Integrated history is better than stand
alone

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History Course.
6/6/2018
Final Word from You
• A final thought or insight to share – one
or two sentences.
• See you next Tuesday

37. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
Safe Schools Project,
Santa Cruz County
• Donations to support our program and course
materials accepted.
– 8th/11th Curriculum Guides
• Safe Schools Project / QYTF
P.O. Box 3143
Santa Cruz, CA 95063
SafeSchoolsProject.org/
Of Santa Cruz
County

38. Darrow. LGBT
History Course.
6/6/2018
Contact Info
• Rob Darrow, Ed.D.
• RobDarrow@robdarrow.us
• www.RobDarrow.us