History/Social Studies was my favorite subject in middle
school and high school. I remember learning about various communities that have
faced violence and oppression throughout history and I remember these situations
best these are the moments when history brought us to live better as humans as
a whole. Therefore, I think it is important to teach kids about communities who
had to turn to resistance and activism to fight against their oppression. I
think it is important for high school kids to learn about just how much
oppressed communities fought for some basic human rights. I also think it is
important for high school aged kids to learn about communities that they may be
a part of or want to be a part of. When I was in high school I didn’t learn
anything about queer history but now that I have, I think it would be
beneficial for it to be in a high school history class’ curriculum. I think
that if queer history was in a high school history class’ curriculum that
students would begin to understand the full extent of oppression that certain
communities face and the importance of fighting this injustice.
I didn’t
learn about the Homophile Movement, the Stonewall Riots, or ACT UP until I was
in college. I think if I were still in high school when I learned about these
events and groups I would’ve understood just how important the fight for queer
justice was. When I was in high school I had no idea that homosexuality was
considered “sexual deviance” in the DSM and gay people would be denied from the
military in WWII. I did not know what the Stonewall Riots were or what they
signified for the LGBTQA community. And I didn’t know what the AIDS epidemic
was or how badly our government responded to it. If I were given the
opportunity to be exposed to this history then I would be able to understand and
respect the LGBTQA community better. In an article by the U.S. News and World
Report called “Don’t Overlook LGBTQ History in High School,” it says “it's important for students to understand the extreme
discrimination, struggles and successes of LGBTQ Americans in past decades.” (https://www.usnews.com/high-schools/blogs/high-school-notes/articles/2017-10-16/dont-overlook-lgbtq-history-in-high-school)
If the average student knows what the LGBTQA community has had to overcome,
they would be able to respect the community better. It would give more dimensions
to history lessons that I was taught, history that involves queer history in
its story allows for students to be aware of the diverse society that we live
in and give them the opportunity to be more accepting of this diversity. An
article by WGM-TV says, “we
think all students are better off when we teach them the full breadth of
history, it makes them more likely to understand that a diverse cast has
contributed to our society.”
If the average student can come to
understand the oppression that the LGBTQA community has overcome they might be
more likely to also begin to understand just how important it is for the fight
for queer justice to continue. Faderman says in the Plague, “they knew that all the progress that had been made in
the 1970s could be reversed and history could easily repeat itself. So they
fought with all their might against that happening, and they won.” (440) This quote
means that queer history is important because history repeats itself. If conversation
about queer struggles seizes to exist, then maybe we could go back to a time
when if gay people were dying then most of the public wouldn’t want to
eliminate the disease that is killing the people but blame their sexual orientation
instead. If the average high school student was taught about queer history then
most of the public would understand just how important the fight for queer
justice is. An article from the Huffpost says, “On a larger scale, implementing
LGBT history into public school education is crucial to building a more
tolerant, unified and less violent America. LGBT people still face
violence and prejudice on a daily basis, largely because a fear of queer people
can come from not understanding or appreciating difference. Wouldn’t it be
great if the burden for education were on actual educators, not just queer
people, as so often is the case?” (https://m-huffpost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5788f8dde4b03fc3ee507f8b/amp?amp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQGCAEoATgA#origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&prerenderSize=1&visibilityState=visible&paddingTop=54&p2r=0&horizontalScrolling=0&csi=1&aoh=15382747230539&viewerUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Famp%2Fs%2Fm.huffpost.com%2Fus%2Fentry%2Fus_5788f8dde4b03fc3ee507f8b%2Famp&history=1&storage=1&cid=1&cap=swipe%2CnavigateTo%2Ccid%2Cfragment%2CreplaceUrl)
This quote not only brings awareness to
the fact that teaching queer history in high schools will not only bring
awareness about the community to a larger group of people, but it will also
bring awareness about violence that exists and has existed to students and give
them initiative to fight that injustice. In conclusion, bringing queer history
to high schools may result in a more understanding and unified society in the
future.
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