Teaching Queer History, Transforming Education
BY Claire Potter ON October 7, 2014
CLGBTH co-chair Don Romesburg
Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History co-chair Don Romesburg is featured in the Sonoma State Star for his work on the California K-12 history curriculum. “Currently, Don Romesburg, the department chair for women’s and gender studies at SSU, is fighting to change the lack of inclusion of the LGBT community in K-12 U.S. history classes,” student reporter Nataly Estupiñan reports. “He is currently working with two other scholars, Leila Rupp and David Donahue, to change the California K-12 U.S. history framework and include events in history involving the LGBT community.”
California is moving towards the reform of its secondary school history curriculum under the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act of 2011.
As if by magic, a new collection of essays arrived in the mail on the same day the article about Romesburg’s role in the FAIR Act was published. US Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014) is a book of essays intended for the high school class room. Also useful at the college level or as a great read, it is co-edited by Rupp, who teaches at UC-Santa Barbara, and Susan K. Freeman of Western Michigan University. It contains essays by numerous LGBT scholars, including OutHistory.org co-directors Claire Potter and John D’Emilio, and should help any historian of the United States weave LGBT materials into their courses.
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