California becomes first US state to approve use of LGBT-inclusive textbooks in schools

Two books were rejected for not including any noted sexual orientation information of famous historical figures

A group of marchers hold a giant rainbow flag while participating in the annual LGBTQI Pride Parade on 25 June 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

California is going to be the first state in the US to teach primary school students with LGBT-inclusive textbooks.

The California State Board of Education approved ten textbooks that include the historical contributions of LGBT Americans for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The bill was written by former State Senator Mark Leno and, according to the Advocate news site, “requires history and social sciences curriculum to teach about the accomplishments of queer people and people with disabilities.”

Advocacy groups have applauded the board’s decision and Equality California's executive director Rick Zbur said it was a “long-fought victory”.

Among the seven approved publishers are McGraw Hill, National Geographic Learning, and Pearson Scott Foresman, and Prentice Hall.

The board also rejected two books that do not include LGBT history because the lessons did not comply with the state’s Fair Education Act of 2011.

The books were published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and “were rejected because they failed to address the sexual orientations of historical figures who were LGBT, or widely speculated by historians to have been LGBT,” according to the LA Times.

Such figures include Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and President James Buchanan.

Though the publisher acknowledged the importance of the contributions of the LGBT community to American history, it did not make the changes necessary to be approved.

"HMH feels that the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer are contemporary terms that may not map well on past lives and experiences," Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said.

As EdSource reported: “School districts are free to use any textbooks, as long as they teach history and social studies according to frameworks — or blueprints — adopted by the board more than a year ago.”

"The decision today means that LGBTQ students, and those with LGBTQ families, will finally be able to see themselves and our history accurately reflected in textbooks in California," Renata Moreira, executive director of Our Family Coalition told Advocate.