California´s public elementary, middle and high schools will teach the history of the LGBTI movement, making the nation´s largest public schools system the first in the nation to do formally adopt the subject matter as part of their curriculum, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The proposal was unanimously approved Thursday by state education officials and will go into effect in the fall semester. The policy requires public schools to include prominent gay U.S. citizens and LGBT rights milestones in history and social science classes.
Students would learn about “the emergence of the nation’s first gay rights organizations in the 1950s,” the framework states, as well as struggles in California from the 1970s to the present day to affirm the right of gay people to teach and to get married, officials said in a statement.
Starting in the second grade, classroom instruction would include conversations about diverse families and would continue in fourth grade with lessons on California’s place in the gay rights movement.
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The move has been praised by LGBT groups and advocates in the state and the entire country, for teaching students about “essential moments in the struggle for equality, and the evolution of communities and identities,” Equality California said in a statement.
California is historically one of the most progressive states in the U.S. and represents the vanguard in the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights.