In a protest that is sending the worst possible message to their children, parents in California pulled a total of 650 students from school for a one-day protest. Their cause? They don’t want LGBTQ-inclusive lessons taught to their kids. This protest spanned an entire school district.
On May 1, the Rocklin Unified School District made a great step forward by adopting LGBTQ-inclusive history and social science curriculums. For context, just last year, a teacher in this district was bullied by staff and some of her own students when people found out that she’s gay. So if a community needs to take a leap and make some big changes, it’s this one.
The district decided to implement this new curriculum by vote, which settled at 3-2.
These lessons fall under the FAIR Education Act of 2011, which includes sexual orientation, racial ethnicities, and people with disabilities. In this case, the students are in grades kindergarten through 5th, and they’re between 5 and 11-years-old.
Awesome! Sort of. Unfortunately, this advance didn’t come easily. And some opponents are just digging their heels in harder and deeper.
Rachel Crutchfield, who attended the school board meeting, is a spokesperson for the Informed Parents of Rocklin, a group which vehemently opposes these inclusive lessons.
“We believe that anyone who has made a significant contribution to society should, of course, be included in our history textbooks,” Crutchfield said. “However, the concept of sexual orientation is far too complex of a topic for elementary-aged children to be introduced to at school. Children in second grade simply do not have the tools to comprehend sexuality, nor do we want them to. Let’s let kids be kids.”
The obvious kicker here is that kids are exposed to heterosexuality as a default every single day, via social norms, the media, and yes, in school, to the extent that they understand it. This assumption of heterosexuality sends a message that it’s the “right” or “normal” orientation and that deviations of it are, by subsequent logic, abnormal. The same comes from the assumption that everyone is cisgender and gender-conforming.
Arguing that kids can’t “comprehend” sexual orientations, or that it detracts from their childhood innocence, also suggests that something about LGBTQ identities is perverse or overtly sexual. LGBTQ people being predators, and especially suggesting that they’re unsafe around kids, is an old, old stereotype that’s apparently still latent in people’s minds. The idea that a person assumed to be straight makes them “safer” or easier for a kid to understand is rooted in queerphobia, and that’s it.
In reality, what sort of lessons are these parents rallying so hard against? As reported by the Sacramento Bee, one example comes from a second-grade lesson about Sally Ride. The lesson describes her as a “good example for all females” who “joined NASA and became the first female and first lesbian American astronaut.”
The horror!
Rachel Henry, of the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, talked to Yahoo Lifestyle about how important it is that we acknowledge LGBTQ identities in a positive way.
“We know that teaching children tolerance, love, and kindness isn’t enough — we have to actively teach about diversity within our community,” she stated. “Because if we’re not naming those identities, we’re ignoring and silencing them.”
It’s true—studies show that learning about LGBTQ people in school helps LGBTQ youth have a safer experience. As one study from GLSEN notes, LGBTQ students who were taught about LGBTQ history, events, or people in any of their classes reported lower levels of victimization. This can include harassment, cyberbullying, and sexual violence.
And remember: LGBTQ youth face higher rates of bullying and assault than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. They’re also more likely to drop out of school, get lower grades, and be absent. Most seriously, they’re also more likely to self-harm and attempt suicide.
“We’re just fighting against the idea that straight is “normal”,’ Henry added to Yahoo. “Aside from gay marriage — which is only one aspect of equality — gay people still aren’t a federally-protected class.”
The very least we can do to help protect and nurture all kids is to teach them acceptance. And for LGBTQ or questioning youth, this can—literally—save their lives.