Gay History Will be Taught in Schools; Watsonville LGBT Group Applauds New Law

Watsonville school leaders say the historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are already being taught in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, but a new law Gov. Jerry Brown signed Thursday will help schools do more.

SB 48 requires school teach gay history, along with that of various ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.

"That's fantastic. That's wonderful. That's awesome," said Maria Perez, of Somos LGBT, a Watsonville group that organizes the annual gay pride parade and provides support to the local LGBT community. "It's about time they recognized the contributions of the LGBT community."

Murry Sheckman, PVUSD assistant superintendent of secondary education, said, "I do believe that our district does a good job of representing all groups in the teaching of history, including LGBT folks from our history. But we do not have a continuum on this content for our K-12 system."

The new law, which is effective Jan. 1, 2012, requires students in grades K-12 to receive education about LGBT history. Textbooks don't have to be reprinted immediately, but Sheckman said he hoped textbook publishers would revamp their books quickly so schools would have more guidance for the lessons.

"We do have regular meetings with the social studies teachers, for we need them to be able to align their curriculum and assessments together," Sheckman said. "We will need to work with our teachers to develop that curricular continuum to ensure that our kids do have accurate historical information related to LGBT issues and heroes from our history."

California is the first state in the nation to require this history be taught.

Perez said she hoped it would reduce the prejudice people express toward the LGBT community in Watsonville, where the historically oppressed Latino population can be less supportive of nontraditional lifestyles.

"It will make that equality feeling that we all need," she said.