Along with being taught the alphabet and how to use glue sticks, starting this fall, some six-year-old students will also be taught the history of LGBTQ people.
The new program, called History Unerased (HUE), includes “age appropriate” material for grades K-12.
Second to fifth graders will be shown short animated videos about people such as gay author Warren Blumenfeld. Children in grades six to eight will be taught about a supposed crossdresser, Sara Rosetta Wakeman, a woman who dressed as a man in order to defend the nation’s capital during the Civil War. High schoolers are offered a variety of curriculum choices on topics such as Title IX, AIDS, Supreme Court decisions, and gay psychiatry.
The group’s goal goes beyond just history classes. It hopes to eventually also infiltrate literature and science classes.
HUE began with a $16,500 grant from the Library of Congress. It has already been taught to 400 teachers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York. By next year, HUE hopes to get their content into public schools in New York City, San Diego, and Broward County, Fla.
The group’s next big move is holding weeklong summer training seminars to train K-12 school teachers for a successful launch of its pilot program this coming school year.
HUE has been met with some backlash from organizations like the Massachusetts Family Institute. Andrew Beckwith, president of MFI, stated his concern “that these ideas would be included in classrooms with children as young as 6 years old.” He says, “Teaching quality history, literature, math and any other curriculum does not warrant discussion by kindergartners about a person’s sexual conduct or preferences.”
For activists on the left, however, it would appear HUE is the pot of gold at the end of the LGBTQ rainbow.
