Social Studies

General

FAIR Education Act: “The FAIR Education Act updates California’s education guidelines to integrate age-appropriate, factual information about the role and contributions of people with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people into social studies and history lessons. These education guidelines already include the contributions of both men and women, people of color, diverse ethnic communities and other historically underrepresented groups. Signed into law on July 14, 2011, these updated guidelines went into effect on January 1, 2012″ (GSA Network).

FAIR Education Act FAQ (from the California Department of Education)

Books, Textbooks, Timelines, Lesson Plans, & Other Resources

A Compilation of High School Curricula in line with the FAIR Education Act (fromwww.faireducationact.com) (NOTE: You may have to do a minimal amount of sifting through this sites curricula to find more LGBT-focused materials since the FAIR Act also mandates the teaching of the contributions of people with disabilities, recognizing, of course, that ‘LGBT’ and ‘disabled’ are not mutually exclusive.)

Unheard Voices: Stories of LGBT History (see righthand column for curriculum links): Sections include –

GLBTQ Social Sciences Resource Compilation: Subject Index – A-E, F-L, M-Z

Gay America: Struggle for Equality: A textbook that chronicles the struggle for gay rights in US history, for grades 7-12.

Living Memory LGBT History Timeline: A timeline from the twentieth century through 2006 that includes historical figures, historical events and laws, and other LGBTQ moments in history.

LGBTQ Icons of History Bio Pages: A collection of the biographies of 31 LGBTQ icons through history, including but not limited to George Washington Carver, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Kiyoshi Kuromia.

Media Construction of Social Justice: Eight-unit series of classroom-ready teacher guides, student handouts, and other materials covering social justice topics (including LGBTQ rights) through analysis and discussion of media portrayals.

No Name-Calling Week Resource Kit: Lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high schools.

Teaching Tolerance: A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center: A collection of lesson plans, activities, professional development resources and more. Themes range from race to sexual identity to immigrant rights.

Timeline of LGBT History: A timeline from the twenty-fifth century BCE through 2006 about historical figures, historical events and laws, and other instances of LGBTQ moments in history.

When Did It Happen: An LGBT History Lesson: A fun and interactive way to teach youth about important figures in LGBTQ history.

Building Empathy Through Reflection: Lessons for Grades 5-12

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be A …: Moving Beyond Gender Barriers in Our Lives: Is inclusive not just of women, but all people who behave in gender-nonconforming ways.

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives – The world’s largest research library on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered heritage and concerns.

Films with Discussion Guides and/or Lesson Plans

Let’s Get Real
Tough Guise
Straightlaced
In My Shoes
In the Family: Marriage Equliaty and LGBT Families, Youth In Motion
All God’s Children: This presents a political, social, & religious analysis of sexual orientation within the context of the traditional African-American values of freedom, inclusion & the Christian ethic.
Gay Youth
Gender Matters: Expression and Identities Beyond the Binary
That’s A Family
That’s A Family: Discussion and Teaching Guide
Bullied: This film tells the story of a school district that was taken to court for their inability to protect a bullied gay student.
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin: A tireless crusader for justice, a disciple of Gandhi, a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., and the architect of the legendary 1963 March on Washington, Rustin dared to live as an openly gay man during the fiercely homophobic 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
Don’t Erase my History: A group of Bay Area youth take us on a quest for the very history that has “no name” in their schools.
Gay Pioneers: Focuses on the first public protests for equal rights for gay and lesbian people.
In My Shoes: Stories of Youth with LGBT Parents: A student-made film that explores the lives of five youths with one or more LGBTQ parents.
Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here: A look at five communities over a five-year period as they band together to fight back when a member of their community is a target of bigotry.
Out in the Silence: A Campaign for Fairness & Equality in Rural and Small Town America: Follows a small town ignited by controversy over the announcement of a same-sex marriage and the bullying of an LGBTQ teen.
Out of the Past: Told through the eyes of Kelli Peterson, a 17-year-old high school student in Salt Lake City, Utah, Out of the Past explores Kelli’s history-making experience of forming a gay-straight alliance (GSA) in her public school. You can get the lesson guide from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network: www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/booklink/record/1507.html
Straight from the Heart: Explores parents’ journeys to a new understanding of their lesbian and gay children.
Visionaries & Victories: Early Leaders in the LGBT Movement: Two films profiling three of the founders of the movement for LGBT equality: Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon, and Harry Hay.

Films without Discussion Guides and/or Lesson Plans

Homoteens
Just Call Me Kade
Out Loud
De Colores: A 28-minute bilingual documentary about how Latino families are replacing the deep roots of homophobia with the even deeper roots of love and tolerance.
On These Shoulders We Stand: An historical account of early gay life and activism in Los Angeles told by the people who lived it.
Tres Gotas de Agua (Three Drops of Water): Three Latina women talk about their children’s coming out processes.
Two Spirits: This movie explores the cultural context of gender identity through the Navajo tradition of honoring those people with the body of one gender but the spirit of another, including the murder of Fred Martinez, one of those honored people, by a white outsider.