LGBTQ

"Safe Spaces: Making Schools and Communities Welcoming to LGBT Youth," G. August, M. Kennedy, A. Vaccaro

"History is written by the victors" - Winston Churchill (but not really?).

What does this quote make you think of? Triumph? An underdog, or an "above all odds" story?

Is the intrinsic truth of the quote a "one size-fit all"? Think about it, we'll go back to it....


I have been thinking about an interesting point that Dr. Annie Russell had made during her presentation yesterday. She commented that when students are educated on the civil rights movements of our country, they rarely are, if ever, taught about important civil right movements that have to do with the LGBTQ community.

I know I didn't learn about any important information in my academic life that regarded to the LBGTQ community. Honestly, the closest I got to learning anything vaguely about the LGBTQ civil movements as an adolescent was in Psychology, when I had to remember the date when when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in 1973 (and you can see the APA's stance has quite changed since then). In many of my classes, I've come to realized I was taught about civil movements, but only the ones that were deemed "appropriate" or  movements that would directly represent the "world view" that those in power accepted as teachable.

Now as I look back on my education, I see many important civil movements that I was not taught about, which I think would have enriched my understanding of people today. I think that when speaking about civil right movements, or highlights, those of the LGBTQ nature could have been included into the discussion very easily. It is not a matter of choosing one over the other; you can introduce important historical LGBTQ movements via correlation. For example, in school, I learned about many civil right movements listed below on the right, the things on the left represent correlating civil right movements in the LGBTQ community.

What I learned…	What I could also have learned…
1963 — March on Washington; Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.	1979 — the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C.
1964 — Civil Rights Act of 1964 is      signed by President Johnson. President Johnson signs Civil Rights Act of 1964	1977 — Activists in Miami, Florida pass a civil rights ordinance making sexual orientation discrimination illegal in Dade County. Save Our Children, a campaign by a Christian fundamentalist group and headed by singer Anita Bryant, is launched in response to the ordinance. In the largest special election of any in Dade County history, 70% vote to overturn the ordinance. It is a crushing defeat for gay activists.
1968 — Martin Luther King is shot, and assassinated by James Earl Ray.	1978 — Harvey Milk, a gay man and a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is assassinated by Dan White. Harvey Milk
1971 — The Supreme Court, in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, upholds busing as a legitimate means for achieving integration of public schools. Although largely unwelcome (and sometimes violently opposed) in local school districts, court-ordered busing plans in cities such as Charlotte, Boston, and Denver continue until the late 1990s.	1996 — In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections Amendment 2 withholds. These protections . . . constitute ordinary civil life in a free society.”

** Historical facts from here and here. :)

The LGBTQ community has many civil right efforts that mirror what we have already implemented in our curriculum, their fight for justice is one that is not uncommon or alien to what we already know and have learned. Why is it, that we are willing to focus on one injustice in lieu of the others?

We know that the LGBTQ community counts the  1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C. as a victory for LGBTQ rights. The political advancement of the openly gay city supervisor,  Harvey Milk can also be counted as a victory. These are victories for human rights. But, for some reason these "victories" are  left hidden away in history, only to be discovered by someone who really cares to look, or specializes in LGBTQ topics.

Okay... So now let's go back to that quote. It's a quote that most people have heard in their life, but how many know really how true it is? 

"History is written by the victors"

What does this quote tell us?

In six words, this quote explains the way information is distributed to the masses.

This quote tells us hat those who divide and conquer make the rules; those in power control what is "common knowledge."

With that in mind, I think we should change the quote, 

"History is written by the victors those in power".

And what do you think about when you see that statement? Does it feel different in its meaning? 

I know when I look at it, it makes me automatically refer to Delpit's text, "The Silenced Dialogue". I immediately think of the culture of power (COP) and SCWAMMP (Straight, Christian, White, Able-bodied, Male, Married, Property-owning).

In the text "Safe Spaces," the authors comment that schools function to "introduce new ways of thinking and behaving" (84). To do so, you have to represent various backgrounds, especially those not included in SCWAMMP. By failure to educate and inform the masses about all civil right movements that have helped change the world to make it what is is today, you are hiding a part of our history that shows the growth that has occurred as a nation and as a people. 

The LGBTQ community is marginalized, it is outside what is considered the cultural norm in the COP. Due to that fact, many students are denied the chance to further enrich their knowledge of their peers, their community, and themselves. To me, the overt deference of teaching LGBTQ issues is like white-washing history in classrooms and textbooks (interesting look at at white-washing and white privilege in the LGBTQ community here) . 

Like white-washing in history, which basically only focuses on historical data that has to do with SCWAMMP, erasing the racial minority /multicultural voice of the nation; the avoidance of teaching LGBTQ history does the same thing. You silence a whole group of people, that have done important and progressive things for civil movements in the country. 

The only way we can change to provide a more inclusive society for all, is to incorporate ideals that are foreign us. Yes, we must provide a safe place to "integrate and interpret" (90) the expressions of all. We must count every civil liberty won by a marginalized group as the victory it is. Only after this is done, will the quote, "History is written by the victors" finally prove true.

Check out how some schools are implementing LGBTQ history in their curriculum. 

1. California

2. New York