There’s a great new resource for teaching LGBT history in middle and high schools—and it might even teach us parents something. The Anti-Defamation League, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and StoryCorps have just released Unheard Voices, “an oral history and curriculum project that will help educators to integrate LGBT history, people and issues into their instructional programs.”
The groups say the project was created in response to the lack of representation of LGBT people in school curricula as well as “disproportionate incidents of bullying and violence against LGBT youth.”
The project contains audio interviews (and transcripts) of nine people who “helped shape LGBT history,” along with discussion questions, suggested activities, and historical background for each interview. There are also lesson plans on broad topics such as invisibility, name-calling, the exclusion of LGBT people from societal institutions, the right to marry, and understanding gender identity.
Interviewees include Phyllis Lyon, one of the founders of the pioneering Daughters of Bilitis lesbian rights group and of the Lesbian Mother’s Union; and Terry Boggis, one of the founding members of Center Kids, Center Families, a program of the New York City LGBT Center. GLSEN says they will add more stories and voices in the coming months.
Worth a listen/read for your own edification even if you don’t have kids in the target age range. (They’re mp3’s, so—if you’re like me—you can download them to the device of your choice and listen while you’re folding laundry, washing dishes, or raking the yard.)
Wow! This does look like a really fantastic resource. Thanks for sharing.