The National Steinbeck Center, California Rural Legal Assistance, Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations and the Monterey County Office of Education are excited to present a FREE screening of The Lavender Scare movie (2017) on Monday, October 8th, 6PM, Salinas Maya Cinemas.

The Lavender Scare (2017) is a documentary focusing the U.S. government’s efforts to identify and fire gay and lesbian employees in the 1950’s.

This screening is part of the NEA Big Read focusing on Tobias Wolff’s memoir This Boy’s Life. The NEA Big Read Film Series is intended to give community members additional perspectives to the themes and topics covered in This Boy’s Life. The NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please contact eric@steinbeck.org

The screening is part of Salinas Valley Pride Celebrations’ week long activities leading up to the annual Salinas Valley Pride on Sunday, October 14. The screening is also part of California Rural Legal Assistance and the Monterey County Office of Education’s programming for LGBTQ History Month.

See lesson plans, videos and resources about the movie, The Lavender Scare.

Teachers and others who would like to learn about the LGBT History written in the California History Social Science Framework will benefit from this course. Taught by Dr. Rob Darrow, learn about important people and events in history as well as how to integrate LGBT history into your regular curriculum. The course, taught through CSU Monterey Bay, will be completely online with weekly online meetings during 4 months in June. Students should be able to devote at least 10 hours per week to this course. Course Info.   Register by May 1 for 3 Units of credit.

Just published and purchase your copy today!

• ” Inclusive Sex Education: A Comprehensive Sex Education Guide for Teachers”
• Author: Jamie Cutter, M.A.

This guide addresses the mandates of the California Healthy Youth Act (CHYA) that was passed in 2016 and mandates the teaching of CSE in all middle and high schools. Includes units, lessons and strategies for teachers to use.

The curriculum, based on CHYA, among other topics, must include the following:

• Instruction and materials shall be appropriate for use with pupils of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and ethnic and cultural backgrounds, pupils with disabilities, and English learners.
• Instruction and materials shall affirmatively recognize that people have different sexual orientations and, when discussing or providing examples of relationships and couples, shall be inclusive of same-sex relationships.
• Instruction and materials shall teach pupils about gender, gender expression, gender identity, and explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes.

Ordering Information.

Check out the monthly LGBT history snippets that were designed especially for GSA advisors. One interesting LGBT history fact each month that can be shared.

The Safe Schools Project of Santa Cruz County has been awarded a grant from the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County for the purpose of creating a professional learning cohort for health and science teachers from Santa Cruz County for the teaching of Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE). The professional learning program will last from February – June 2018 and will include a teachers’ curriculum guide, 2 full days of professional learning, and twice a month after school and online meetings to discuss the various aspects of teaching CSE. See the tentative schedule.

The grant is available for up to 10 teachers, so sign up now.  First day of the grant will be in February – with our first online meeting – and the first face-to-face meeting will be on Friday, February 23 from 8:30am-3:00pm.  The grant provides funding for one substitute day, materials, and a stipend for each cohort teacher. The school district cost for each cohort teacher is the cost of one substitute day. Read more here.

Teachers have until January 20 to register their interest.

Join us at the Fall Summit:  “Resist Oppressive Forces: Unite and Protect our Diverse Communities.”  Saturday, October 7, 2017 Delta Charter School, @Cabrillo College, Aptos.  Cost = Free. More Info.

A team of people from Santa Cruz are presenting a session at the annual Creating Change Conference in Philadelphia. The title of the session is “Building a Gender Justice Youth Mindset”. We spent time looking at some of the LGBT history of Santa Cruz County to understand the various people and events that brought us to today. The session discusses outreach to youth in Santa Cruz County that is provided by the Diversity Center, Queer Youth Task Force and Safe Schools Project. See the resources developed for our session.

The Safe Schools Project is proud to announce the Queer, Trans* & Allied Student Summit will be taking place on Saturday, February 11, 2017 at Watsonville High School from 9:30 am – 2:00 pm. The title of the Summit is: Uniting POC and Queer/Trans* People, selected by members of the Watsonville High School Sexualities And Genders Acceptance (SAGA) student club. The Summit is for middle school and high school students.

Meet students throughout Santa Cruz County — from Watsonville, Salinas to Scotts Valley — who are working to help create safer schools in their community! Lunch and Snacks Provided. Experience workshops put on by fellow youth and community resources. Meet LGBTIQ/Ally Community Leaders, enjoy a Fruit Smoothie Party and more.

Info: 2017 Queer, Trans* & Allied Student Summit