Police in Los Angeles have no suspects as an LGBTQ+ youth center continues to be vandalized with dog poop.
Unknown individuals have been leaving dozens of bags containing feces outside the entrance of Mi SELA over the past several months, according to the center’s parent organizations, the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Latino Equity Alliance (LEA). There are currently no leads in the case, with law enforcement saying it is unable to act.
“This senseless harassment is abhorrent and unacceptable,” LEA said in a statement. “In 2025, it is shocking that young people and community organizations continue to face such targeted hate and intimidation. While law enforcement has emphasized that action cannot be taken without catching the perpetrators in the act, this does not diminish the urgent need for vigilance, awareness, and a public stance against hate in our communities.”
“LEA calls on our neighbors, city leaders, and all members of the Bell community to stand together, speak out, and make clear that attacks on LGBTQ+ youth, their spaces, and their safety will never be tolerated. Every young person deserves to feel safe, supported, and celebrated in their community,” it continued.
Mi SELA, located in Bell, California, is an organization dedicated to “building power within the Latine LGBTQ+ community,” according to its website. It offers mental health, substance abuse, and legal counseling among other community workshops.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn issued a grant of $2,500 to Mi SELA on Friday, equipping the center to upgrade its security cameras in the hopes of catching the perpetrator or perpetrators.
“The fact that this person is going out of their way to do this says everything about them and nothing about our LGBTQ community in Southeast LA,” Hahn said in a statement. “This is gross and cowardly. I hope that the people who depend on Mi SELA know how much they are loved and supported in this community and do not take this hate to heart.”
Anyone with information about the incidents is encouraged to contact the Bell Police Department at (323) 585-1245.
While every city’s neighborhoods change, few have experienced such thorough erasure from collective memory as San Francisco’s original gayborhoods. The gender-nonconforming stage acts of the Barbary Coast made North Beach home to some of the city’s earliest queer spaces. The Tenderloin was ground zero for the Gay Liberation Front and remains a hub for trans activism and culture. Polk Street hosted the discos of Sylvester, the drunken tales of Tennessee Williams, and more than a hundred queer-owned bookstores, clothing shops, bathhouses, and bars.
So why do we only talk about The Castro?
Join Unspeakable Vice’s Shawn Sprocket in conversation with Dr. Nan Alamilla Boyd, Marga Gomez, and Carolina Osoria as they discuss these often forgotten histories—and consider the reasons that have caused them to fade from public memory.
This program is part of Speaking Of, a new quarterly series from the GLBT Historical Society and Unspeakable Vice Walking Tours, bringing historians, researchers, and the community together to explore today’s questions through the lens of the past.
For more than four years, theFoundation for California Community Collegeshas partnered with Crisis Text Line to help spread mental health awareness and to support students in their time of need. Crisis Text Line is a nonprofit organization that provides free, 24/7, confidential text-based mental health support in both English and Spanish. Anyone—students, faculty, and staff— seeking support can text COURAGE to 741741 to reach a live, volunteer Crisis Counselor.
Crisis Text Line data shows that school-related stress or anxiety is quite common, as 30% of texters (among the ages 18 through 24) discussed this issue. When discussing school-related stress, texters talked specifically about financial stress, having to find a job, failing, as well as specific mental health diagnoses. Every year, these conversations surge when school is in session.
“Partnering with Crisis Text Line has been a vital step in advancing our mission to provide equitable and holistic support for California Community College students, including 24/7 mental health care,” said Iris Aguilar, Vice President of Equity and Community Impact at the Foundation for California Community Colleges. “In just the past academic year, Crisis Text Line supported over 700 students through more than 1,100 conversations and safely de-escalated 13 serious mental health crises. This year alone accounts for nearly 17 percent of all crisis de-escalations since 2018, with 67 percent being first-time texters, underscoring the growing demand for timely, confidential support. That’s why this partnership matters: it ensures students don’t face mental health challenges alone. We are meeting them where they are, when they need us most.”
Since launching the partnership in July 2021, Crisis Text Line has handled more than 16,000 conversations with members of the California Community Colleges community. Nearly half of the conversations (46%) were about anxiety and stress, and one-third of the conversations (33%) mentioned depression or sadness.
More than half of our conversations (59%) were with students aged 18-24, while about a fifth (19%) were with students aged 25-34. These numbers reflect a growing demand for accessible, 24/7 mental health care, especially around issues like anxiety, academic stress, and isolation.
“Crisis Text Line is ready to support students with whatever the semester brings,” said Jana French, Community Partnerships Director at Crisis Text Line. “We’ve trained more than 85,000 volunteer Crisis Counselors—many of them college students themselves—who bring texters from a hot moment to a cool calm through empathy, active listening, and by empowering each texter to use their own strengths and coping strategies.”
Crisis Text Line’s text-based service supports people of all ages but was specifically created for young people, allowing for on-demand support through text message – a medium most people use and trust. The nonprofit organization uses a triage algorithm to identify texters at high risk of imminent harm. It moves them to the front of the queue, just like a mental health emergency room.
Those seeking free, 24/7 confidential mental health support through Crisis Text Line can connect via text, web chat and WhatsApp in English and Spanish. To reach a live, trained volunteer Crisis Counselor, text COURAGE to 741741, or 443-SUPPORT in WhatsApp, or to 442-AYUDAME in WhatsApp for Spanish, or connect with us via web chat.
About the Foundation for California Community Colleges
The Foundation for California Community Colleges works to benefit students, colleges, and communities by accelerating paths to economic and social mobility, strengthening communities, and reducing barriers to opportunities for all Californians. FoundationCCC is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1998. It serves as the official statewide nonprofit organization supporting the California Community Colleges, the largest system of higher education in the nation. For more information, visit www.foundationccc.org.
About Crisis Text Line
Crisis Text Line is a leading nonprofit organization that provides free, 24/7, confidential text-based mental health support in English and Spanish. Since its launch in 2013, we have supported over 11 million conversations in the United States and more than 15 million globally together with our affiliates in Canada, the UK and Ireland. Crisis Text Line’s more than 85,000 live, trained volunteer Crisis Counselors bring texters from a hot moment to a cool calm through nonjudgmental support and empowers each texter to use their own strengths and coping strategies. We are committed to creating an empathetic world where nobody feels alone. Individuals seeking confidential support can connect with us via text, web chat and WhatsApp. To be connected to a live, trained nonjudgmental volunteer Crisis Counselor, text HELLO or HOLA to 741741 or 443-SUPPORT in WhatsApp or text HOLA to 741741 or 442-AYUDAME in WhatsApp for Spanish or connect with us viaweb chat.Visit Crisis Text Line onInstagram,Twitter andFacebook.Additional information, including how to become a volunteer or how to support Crisis Text Line through donations or partnerships, is available atwww.crisistextline.org.
Two Zen-inspired senior living communities are embracing the reality of aging — consciously. Ensō Village, open since 2023 in Sonoma County, and Ensō Verde, now taking shape in a hidden corner of Simi Valley.
These communities — a collaboration of the renowned San Francisco Zen Center and Kendal, a visionary provider of communities, programs and services founded on Quaker values — focus on mindful aging, the joys of nature, environmental stewardship, contemplative care and healthy life choices for adults aged 60 and higher.
Former actor and film producer Susan O’Connell spent a lifetime living, creatively in the film industry, and then intentionally as a Zen Priest and President of the San Francisco Zen Center. Now, in her third professional chapter, she is the visionary behind Ensō Verde and Ensō Village. Encouraging elders to gracefully and consciously age, she oversees the development of Ensō Verde and resides at Ensō Village.
Different from conventional retirement communities, Ensō Village and Ensō Verde provide contemplative spaces for encouraging meditation, acreage to sustain a healthy farmer-to-chef-to-consumer relationship, and core programming that promotes mindfulness.
ZEN AND QUAKER VALUES
Based on Quaker and Zen values, both communities encourage residents to explore spirituality, as part of “whole body wellness.” Welcoming diversity, inclusion and belonging, each living community strives to create a safe, non-judgmental space for individuals to be themselves.
“We say Zen-inspired, not required. We’re setting a baseline emphasis on contemplative practices and mindfulness, but you can go as far in or away as you want. We have a wide variety of people on different spiritual paths, including no spiritual path,” O’Connell says.
FARM FRESH FOOD
Ensō Verde sits on 20 acres of pristine land that’s never been built on — a purchase that O’Connell considered rare to find and in perfect alignment with the values and mission of Ensō Verde.
“The beauty of this land, it’s not far from Los Angeles, so you’re not isolated from cultural activities, and you’re immersed in nature. “We insisted on having an area where we actually grow food, so the awareness of the cycle of food and composting and sustainability is very strong here.”
CONTINUUM OF CARE
Both properties offer memory support, assisted living and in-home health services for residents.
“The goal, of course, is to provide high-quality healthcare up through assisted living. We’re a place that supports the continuum of care. You can age in place without necessarily needing to leave where you are for assisted care because of our Residential Care for the Elderly (RCFE) license,” O’Connell says.
WORTH THE INVESTMENT
As people age, the burden to maintain their homes given limited resources and decreasing mobility is heavy. When considering independence versus living in community, the tradeoff is beneficial both socially and financially, O’Connell says.
“Residents essentially sell their homes as an entrance fee, but when you leave the community, or if you pass away, the beneficiaries of your estate will receive 75-80% of the value back. It’s an investment in your health.” O’Connell says.
To learn more about Ensō Village in Sonoma County and Ensō Verde, coming soon to Simi Valley, visit https://verde.kendal.org/.
California will partner with the Trevor Project to provide suicide prevention support to LGBTQ+ youth, state officials announced Wednesday. The announcement comes weeks after the Trump administration said it will no longer provide national suicide and crisis hotline services to LGBTQ+ youth.
“While the Trump administration continues its attacks on LGBTQ kids, California has a message to the gay community: we see you and we’re here for you,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “We’re proud to work with the Trevor Project to ensure that every person in our state can get the support they need to live a happy, healthy life.”
California said Wednesday the Trevor Project will train the state’s 988 crisis counselors on how to support LGBTQ youth. The state said 12 national call centers are currently staffed across California with counselors trained to respond to callers needing support during suicide and behavioral health crises.
Read the full article. Democrats help, Republicans hurt.
“I hated my body,” the nonbinary 16-year-old said. “I hated looking at it.”
When therapy didn’t help, Pitchenik, who uses the pronoun they, started going to the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the country’s biggest public provider of gender-affirming care for children and teens. It changed their life.
But in response to the Trump administration’s threat to cut federal funds to places that offer gender-affirming care to minors, the center will be closing its doors July 22. Pitchenik has been among the scores of protesters who have demonstrated regularly outside the hospital to keep it open.
Sage Sol Pitchenik in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Monday.Jae C. Hong / AP
“Trans kids are done being quiet. Trans kids are done being polite, and trans kids are done begging for the bare minimum, begging for the chance to grow up, to have a future, to be loved by others when sometimes we can’t even love ourselves,” Pitchenik said, prompting cheers from dozens of protesters during a recent demonstration.
They went to the center for six years.
“There’s a lot of bigotry and just hate all around, and having somebody who is trained specifically to speak with you, because there’s not a lot of people that know what it’s like, it meant the world,” they told The Associated Press.
The center’s legacy
In operation for three decades, the facility is among the longest-running trans youth centers in the country and has served thousands of young people on public insurance.
Patients who haven’t gone through puberty yet receive counseling, which continues throughout the care process. For some patients, the next step is puberty blockers; for others, it’s also hormone replacement therapy. Surgeries are rarely offered to minors.
“I’m one of the lucky ones,” said Pitchenik, who received hormone blockers after a lengthy process. “I learned how to not only survive but how to thrive in my own body because of the lifesaving health care provided to me right here at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.”
Many families are now scrambling to find care among a patchwork of private and public providers that are already stretched thin. It’s not just patient care, but research development that’s ending.
“It is a disappointment to see this abrupt closure disrupting the care that trans youth receive. But it’s also a stain on their legacy,” said Maria Do, community mobilization manager at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “I think it showcases that they’re quick to abandon our most vulnerable members.”
Maria Do, community mobilization manager at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, outside Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Thursday.Jae C. Hong / AP
The closure comes weeks after the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, amid other efforts by the federal government to regulate the lives of transgender people.
The hospital initially backed off its plans to close after it announced them in February, spurring demonstrations, but later doubled back.
The center said in a statement that “despite this deeply held commitment to supporting LA’s gender-diverse community, the hospital has been left with no viable path forward” to stay open.
“Center team members were heartbroken to learn of the decision from hospital leaders, who emphasized that it was not made lightly, but followed a thorough legal and financial assessment of the increasingly severe impacts of recent administrative actions and proposed policies,” the statement said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has warned that by closing the center, the hospital is violating state antidiscrimination laws, but his office hasn’t taken any further actions. Bonta and attorney generals from 22 other states sued the Trump administration over the executive order in February.
“The Trump administration’s relentless assault on transgender adolescents is nothing short of an all-out war to strip away LGBTQ+ rights,” Bonta told the AP in an email. “The Administration’s harmful attacks are hurting California’s transgender community by seeking to scare doctors and hospitals from providing nondiscriminatory healthcare. The bottom line is: This care remains legal in California.”
LGBTQ protesters and health care workers offer visibility
Still wearing scrubs, Jack Brenner, joined protesters after a long shift as a nurse in the hospital’s emergency room, addressing the crowd with a megaphone while choking back tears.
“Our visibility is so important for our youth,” Brenner said, looking out at a cluster of protesters raising signs and waving trans pride flags. “To see that there is a future, and that there is a way to grow up and to be your authentic self.”
Jack Brenner, an emergency room nurse at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, on Thursday.Jae C. Hong / AP
Brenner, who uses the pronoun they, didn’t see people who looked like them growing up or come to understand what being trans meant until their mid-20s.
“It’s something I definitely didn’t have a language for when I was a kid, and I didn’t know what the source of my pain and suffering was, and now looking back, so many things are sliding into place,” Brenner said. “I’m realizing how much gender dysphoria was a source of my pain.”
Trans children and teens are at increased risk of death by suicide, according to a 2024 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Brenner described encountering young patients in the emergency room who are trans or otherwise on the gender-nonconforming spectrum and “at the peak of a mental health crisis.” Brenner wears a lanyard teeming with colorful pins emblazoned with the words “they/them” to signal their gender identity.
Jack Brenner shows their lanyard decorated with pronoun pins and buttons.Jae C. Hong / AP
“I see the change in kids’ eyes, little glints of recognition, that I am a trans adult and that there is a future,” Brenner said. “I’ve seen kids light up when they recognize something of themselves in me. And that is so meaningful that I can provide that.”
Beth Hossfeld, a marriage and family therapist, and a grandmother to an 11- and 13-year-old who received care at the center, called the closure “patient abandonment.”
“It’s a political decision, not a medical one, and that’s disturbing to me,” she said.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon gave the state 10 days, beginning June 27, to sign on to an agreement “to rescind any trans-inclusionary guidelines and send cisgender female athletes who lost to a trans opponent personalized apologies,” The Sacramento Bee reports. The U.S. Department of Education’sOffice for Civil Rights had determined that California had violated federal nondiscrimination law by letting trans girls and women compete against cis females. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 bans sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funds. Democratic administrations have interpreted it as preventing anti-trans discrimination, while Trump’s administration is using it to enable anti-trans discrimination.
But California will not go along. “The [California Department of Education] respectfully disagrees with OCR’s analysis, and it will not sign the proposed Resolution Agreement,” CDE General Counsel Len Garfinkle wrote Monday to OCR Regional Director Bradley Burke, according to the Bee.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s staff termed the proposed agreement a “political document” and said it had no legal validity. It would also make the state violate its own trans-inclusive nondiscrimination laws, Newsom’s aides said. California passed a law in 2013 allowing students to play on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
The Trump administration has threatened loss of federal funds to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities with trans-inclusive sports policies, and some have agreed to ban trans athletes, such as, recently, the University of Pennsylvania.
Newsom, usually a strong LGBTQ+ ally, received criticism this year for questioning the fairness of letting trans girls compete with cis girls. Now, with his state standing up for trans girls, he’s catching fire from McMahon.
“California has just REJECTED our resolution agreement to follow federal law and keep men out of women’s sports,” she wrote on X. “Turns out Gov. Newsom’s acknowledgment that ‘it’s an issue of fairness’ was empty political grandstanding.” She said he would hear from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
California is already suing the federal government over the demand to change the state’s trans-inclusive policy. Changing that would violate state antidiscrimination law and the U.S. Constitution, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
And just two weeks ago, a spokesman for Newsom downplayed McMahon’s threat of withholding federal funds. “It wouldn’t be a day ending in ‘Y’ without the Trump administration threatening to defund California,” Newsom’s director of communications, Izzy Gardon, told The Advocate at the time. “Now Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won’t stick.”
California has made one concession. In May, the California Interscholastic Federation quietly changed the rules for competing in the girls’ state track championships, with a pilot program allowing cis girls who narrowly missed qualifying — allegedly due to the inclusion of a trans competitor — a chance to compete. But a trans girl targeted by Trump, Jurupa Valley High School junior AB Hernandez, was still allowed to participate as well. Hernandez won two gold medals and one silver at the state finals, and her fellow athletes offered no objections.
Maine has already stood up to Trump’s attacks on trans athletes. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said the state would not change its trans-inclusive policies and that she would see Trump in court. After a federal court intervened in the administration’s attempt to withhold school meal funding from Maine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it would restore the funds.
Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, praised California’s latest action. “This administration is targeting California in an attempt to intimidate it into backing away from its strong anti-discrimination laws,” he told the Bee. “I’m encouraged to see the California Department of Education is standing up to that.”
After the U.S. House joined the Senate in passing an extremist and deeply harmful reconciliation bill, Equality California—the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ+ civil rights organization—issued the following statement from Executive Director Tony Hoang:
“Today, Congress passed one of the most cruel and dangerous bills in modern history at the direction of Donald Trump and on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans.
Congressional Republicans gutted Medicaid, slashed food assistance, and defunded Planned Parenthood. They imposed extreme new restrictions on programs that LGBTQ+ people—especially transgender people, immigrants, low-income families, people living with HIV, and LGBTQ+ people of color—rely on to survive.
In the dead of night, Republicans slashed healthcare access for an estimated 18 million Americans by gutting Medicaid and sabotaging the Affordable Care Act—leaving millions without coverage in the name of tax cuts for the rich.
Let’s be crystal clear—This bill is a coordinated, multi-pronged attack on LGBTQ+ people and all Americans, cutting off access to care, food, safety, and economic security:
Strips life-saving healthcare from LGBTQ+ people by gutting Medicaid — a program that 1.8 million LGBTQ+ adults, including over 185,000 transgender people, rely on as their primary source of health insurance.
Slashes food assistance by cutting SNAP benefits and imposing harsh new work requirements, putting more than 2 million LGBTQ+ adults at risk of deeper food insecurity, including nearly 1 in 5 transgender people.
Defunds Planned Parenthood, threatening access to gender-affirming care, HIV prevention, STI testing, contraception, and reproductive health services that LGBTQ+ people—especially youth and people of color—depend on.
Escalates attacks on LGBTQ+ immigrants, with $80 billion in new funding for ICE and CBP — putting asylum seekers and undocumented LGBTQ+ people in even greater danger of detention, deportation, and violence.
Cuts incomes for the poorest Americans, who are disproportionately LGBTQ+, while handing tax breaks to billionaires — a direct hit to the most marginalized in our community.
In California, the consequences will be catastrophic. One in three Californians rely on Medi-Cal, and over 5 million use CalFresh to feed their families. This bill will leave people sicker and hungrier—just to fund tax cuts for the wealthy.
Shame on every lawmaker who voted for this bill and against the wellbeing of their constituents—especially Reps. Calvert, Kim, Kiley and Valadao. We will remember. And we will make sure voters do, too.
The gloves are off, and we urge every American to join our fight and hold their representatives accountable for the harm they’ve inflicted and the lives they’ve put at risk.”
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Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ civil rights organization. We bring the voices of LGBTQ people and allies to institutions of power in California and across the United States, striving to create a world that is healthy, just, and fully equal for all LGBTQ people. We advance civil rights and social justice by inspiring, advocating and mobilizing through an inclusive movement that works tirelessly on behalf of those we serve. www.eqca.org
Stanford Medicine will no longer provide gender-affirming surgeries to patients under the age of 19 after facing threats from the Trump Administration.
“After careful review of the latest actions and directives from the federal government and following consultations with clinical leadership, including our multidisciplinary LGBTQ+ program and its providers, Stanford Medicine paused providing gender-related surgical procedures as part of our comprehensive range of medical services for LGBTQ+ patients under the age of 19, effective June 2,” Stanford Medicine told The Los Angeles Times.
“We took this step to protect both our providers and patients. This was not a decision we made lightly, especially knowing how deeply this impacts the individuals and families who depend on our essential care and support,” it continued.
Gender-affirming surgeries among minors are incredibly rare. There is no evidence of surgeries being performed on trans youth under the age of 12, according to a recent study in JAMA, and only 2.1 out of every 100,000 trans youth ages 15 to 17 received surgery — the vast majority being chest surgeries. Out of 151 breast reductions performed on American minors in 2019, 146 (97 percent) were performed on cisgender males.
Gender-affirming care for prepubescent youth primarily focuses on socially transitioning — changing their hair, clothing, or potentially going by a new name and pronouns. Only after many months being evaluated in talk therapy could a pubescent child demonstrating gender dysphoria be prescribed puberty blockers. When the patient is old enough, usually ages 16 to 17 per Planned Parenthood, they can then be prescribed hormones to replace those produced by their body.
Not only is gender-affirming care legal for minors in California, but the state became a sanctuary for the treatment following Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s signing of SB 107 in 2022. The law prohibits states that have banned the life-saving care from punishing those who travel to California to receive it through preventing the release of information or the arrest and extradition of someone based on another state’s court orders.
A coalition of local educators and LGBTQ+ organizations in California are unveiling 10 new LGBTQ+ history lessons for the state’s K-12 public school classrooms under the theme “Pride, Resistance, Joy: Teaching Intersectional LGBTQ+ Stories of California and Beyond.”
While the lessons will be unveiled on Thursday, they’ll align with the state’s 2011 Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, a law that requires public schools to include the historical contributions of LGBTQ+ Americans in history lessons and classroom textbooks.
Lesson plan materials provided by the aforementioned organizations show that one kindergarten lesson will explore, “What are some ways we can show how to be a strong community member?” An 8th-grade U.S. History lesson plan will ask, “To what extent did historical figures agree or disagree with ‘all men are created equal’ during their activism?”
A 9th-grade Ethnic Studies lesson plan will ask, “What role did community organizations play in supporting queer AAPI [Asian-American and Pacific Islander] people in the 1980s and 1990s?” A 12th-grade U.S. Government lesson plan will ask, “How did LGBTQ+ immigrants push for more inclusive immigration policies in the 1970s and 1980s?”
The currently available lesson plans for high schoolers include ones about queer activist and poet Audre Lorde, AIDS & HIV activism, gay racial civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin, queerness in 1920s and 1930s Hollywood, trailblazing San Francisco politcian Harvey Milk, the removal of homosexuality as a classified mental disorder, transgender-inclusive German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, how urbanization affected alternative family structures, and other topics.
In a statement, Trevor Ladner, Director of Education Programs at One Institute said, “The FAIR Education Act affirms students’ right to study the pride, resistance, and joy of LGBTQ+ history and culture. These lesson plans equip K-12 teachers with standards-aligned resources and effective practices to teach intersectional LGBTQ+ histories,”
Peta Lindsay, Associate Director of the UCLA History-Geography Project said, “LGBTQ+ students, teachers, and families are essential members of our communities, and LGBTQ+ history is an essential part of our shared history. Every student deserves access to empowering LGBTQ+ history in schools.”
The development of LGBTQ+ inclusive-curriculum under California’s FAIR Act
The landmark legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, was introduced by then-State Sen. Mark Leno (D), and signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown(D).
Historian Don Romesburg, the lead scholar who worked with advocacy organizations to pass the act, served as director of a committee to develop the act’s original curriculum framework.
Romesburg and his committee of 20 scholars — all who specialize in different areas of LGBTQ+, U.S. and world history — went line-by-line through the state’s curriculum and suggested ways to incorporate LGBTQ+ material based on current research and age-appropriateness. Their framework didn’t just include famous LGBT historical figures but also encouraged students to think critically about family structures, gender roles, and institutional oppressions throughout time.
The current framework has students in the 2nd grade social studies classes learning how LGBTQ+ families exist alongside families with adoptive parents, step-parents, and parents who are immigrants. In 4th-grade California history, students learn about famous 19th-century stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, a western pioneer who lived and dressed as a man but was discovered after death to have been assigned a female gender at birth
“This is great time for critical thinking,” Romesburg said, “to get people to think about birth-assigned gender and why someone would dress like [a man] in the Gold Rush era of the West.”
In 5th grade Early American history classes, some lessons emphasize how two-spirit shamans and multi-parent families in indigenous American tribes changed as a result of colonization. In 8th grade, students of 19th-century U.S. history discuss how Black people and women forged their own families in response to slavery and industrialization.
Social science electives for 9th graders include mentions of famous lesbian and bisexual women in, and ethnic studies classes mention famous queer people of color. Modern world history classes for 10th graders cover the persecution of gay people during the Holocaust.
The 11th grade modern U.S. history classes look at the evolution of modern LGBTQ+ communities throughout history (like during the Harlem Renaissance, WWII, and the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s). They also cover the persecution of sexual and gender minorities by the medical community, the U.S. military, the U.S. government, the religious right, and throughout the AIDS epidemic and current LGBTQ+ court cases.
Over the years, the state train educators about how to incorporate LGBTQ+ material into their classes and to advocate for textbook and educational material providers to create LGBTQ+-inclusive materials. California is a huge text book market and has a huge influence on the rest of the country’s textbook materials, so textbook producers have a strong financial incentive to create textbooks in line with California’s new standards, standards that will likely affect the textbooks of smaller states around the U.S..
As for claims of “sexual brainwashing”, Romesburg said, “It’s a contemporary reality that there’s an modern LGBT rights movement and that LGBT people exist. You don’t have to take a political view on whether you approve of that to know that it has a history and that history is something that all students should have access to.”
He added, “One of the things that’s most exciting is there are many educators in California that have been eager to include LGBT content in their teaching, but they haven’t know how. And this gives them a roadmap in a substantial way to do this in elementary, middle and high school. It’s utterly transformative and truly history-making.”
