By Moni Basu, CNN
(CNN) – American schools recognize African-American History Month and Women's History Month. This year, for the first time, two school districts are celebrating LGBT History Month, which started seven years ago and kicked off this year on October 1.
The Broward County school district in Florida signed a resolution in September in support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Americans. Last week, the Los Angeles school district, the nation's second-largest, also signed on. The two districts have more than 1 million students.
"I want LGBT students to see their education as the diamond, their joy in their life rather than their trauma,” said Judy Chiasson, diversity coordinator for Los Angeles schools.
“Schools have an obligation to present the diversity of our communities," she said. "There are many different types of families; we want all of our families to be recognized in our schools.”
Last year, California passed the FAIR Education Act, which requires public schools to teach LGBT-inclusive history.
California law already required state public schools to teach about the contributions of Native Americans, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Asian-Americans, among other groups.
Democratic Sen. Mark Leno, who sponsored the legislation, said at the time that research shows that students who learn about LGBT people are more likely to report that their schools are inclusive and fair.
Preventing bullying and suicides in schools
However, the bill drew ire from religious and conservative groups, like the lobby Traditional Values Coalition.
Equality Forum, which sponsors LGBT month, is featuring a LGBT icon every day in October. Among them are author Truman Capote, designer Jean-Paul Gaultier and CNN anchor Don Lemon.
Watch Lemon talk about his sexuality
The icons whom Equality Forum highlights with online educational resources and videos are, said Executive Director Malcolm Lazin, the Martin Luther King Jr.s of the LGBT world.
"The LGBT community is the only minority community that is not taught in schools," Lazin said. "So no wonder homophobia exists."
He called the recognition in the two school districts a "giant step in public school embracing LGBT inclusion and respect.” LGBT month will help children learn about the the role of gays and lesbians, he said, and help "break the cocoon of invisibility" for Americans who for many years have remained under the mainstream radar.
But 14,000 school districts have yet to adopt LGBT month, which this year kicked off with a road dedication ceremony honoring lesbian activist Barbara Gittings in her hometown of Philadelphia. A red sign heralding Barbara Gittings Way was placed under the name of Locust Street between 12th and 13th in the city's "Gayborhood."
Gittings edited the first lesbian publication in America. She persuaded the Library of Congress to include gay and lesbian books in the nation's card catalogs and libraries. And, with Frank Kameny, she successfully challenged the American Psychiatric Association to remove the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness.
Gittings, said Lazin, was a woman who came out in public to fight for gay rights at a time when many gay Americans did not even dare to come out in private.
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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these are exactly as i had in my head while we were snitoohg.i love the ones on the couch from the side and the top down. such a good balance of color and calmness. this baby was perfect and mom and dad made our job so easy. love how these turned out. we need more of these types of models and sessions. i'm in love. lesli
To those that say that being gay is a choice or simply a lifestyle, your views are mistaken. The LGBT community never chose to be what they are, and it's more than a lifestyle. It's a life with style and a life with love between people who deserve to have the same rights as straight people. I'm an transgendered boy whose an older brother to a gay sister, and I see how much damage the phrases, "being gay is a choice" and "you picked this way simply because it's a lifestyle endorsed by the media", can do to a member of the LGBT community. We're a people a minority who deserve to be able to love and be recognized for who we are, not crushed or belittled simply because we are different.
PS: Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that if you've got nothing nice to post, don't post it. My request may seem childish, and I know that many of you will ignore it, but still. CNN welcomes a lively and courteous discussion. When you start crushing or hating on people simply because of who they are or what people have done for them, then you leave that realm. When you do that, then your posts shouldn't be here.
Time to have a month for folks like Jerry Sandusky, after all they are an discrimmated minority group due to their behavior as well.
if you have a kid in the Los Angeles Unified school District...next parent conferance you have..ask the teacher where Did their kids go to school. Funny how it's always private school or home school.
Asian-American month...Mexican American month...Black history month...Holocaust awareness month...now LBGT month...we'll...cut off another hour of math and science instruction , hand it over to Mr. twinkle toes...for um...sesitivty instruction. I don't mean to offend but c'mon, 80% of our students can't even add fractions after leaving high school. Im fairly left leaning but this has gotten out of hand.
Sadly the reputation of America is going that way. This is coming from someone who lives in Toronto and is visiting her Dutch in laws in Holland. I'm more respected as a transgender woman than I am as an American.
I wonder if renovations are underway to make these schools LGBT friendly? There will need to be several new categories of rest rooms in addition to the existing straight male and straight female; gay male, gay female, pre-op transgender males, pre-op transgender females... I hope I didn't leave anyone out, I would not like to be accused of damaging anyones self esteem or being insensitive...
I'm all for gays doing whatever they want. But isn't a whole month for them a bit... excessive? They're not exactly specified on the history books like in black history.
These people had a bad childhood ,disfuntional parenting,molestation,bad or no christian teachings.They need prayer ,help love and counculing.Not celebrating that they are misserable.They are unhappy and looking for love in all the wrong places.In the bible it is writen that before the end of time,people will say what is bad is good and that what is good is bad.
They seem pretty happy to me maybe its you who are miserable
I came from a wonderful, well educated, Midwest, middle class, family with good christian values. I worked and paid my taxes for 25 years and was terrified by by 'Christians' such as yourself for fear of being tarred and feathered for being 'born' this way. I lost everything to save myself and become who I really am. You have no idea what courage it takes to face this level of hate. I am a successful business woman and my husband works for one of the largest banks in Canada. How dare you assume we are all misanthropic deviants. Get a clue.
"How dare you assume we are all misanthropic deviants" Haven't you just explained why?
"These people..." Nice job of generalizing people. This is the same as saying "All white American's live in mansions." You are ignorant and uneducated and I feel sorry for you. Read a book or talk to humans who are not like you and share different values and opinions. I was raised in a middle-class, white, Christian family. I attended Church every Sunday and was confirmed as a teenager. My parents loved me, my siblings, and each other. I am a lesbian. And a really damn happy lesbian with no abuse as a child, "functional" parenting, zero molestation, and a simple grammar class. Go get educated.
Celebrating abnormal behavior in our schools is not good for our children or our country. Those school board members and elected officials should be replaced!
You're joking right? You do realize people like you are the reason we can't move forward in this country. But hey, go back about 60 years when people said the same thing about African Americans in schools and note that outcome. History sure does come around full circle.
Judgement + hate = abnormal. Where does love come into play? Oh wait, only for those within 'your' comfort zone.
What will be next? An individual will be able to marry a child, an animal, a corpse, an inanimate object!? Just wait and see. Out w/ the Old America and in w/ the New America. God help us to help ourselves!!! God still LIVES...
Can two men make a babay? Can two women?
What would happeen if everyone on earth was gay?
Can every man and woman make a baby? WOuld straight people stop having babies if gays were allowed to marry or LGBT topics were discussed in school? If you had two brain cells to rub together would you be asking such stupid questions?
Once I heard a teenage girl whose parents had recently moved from overseas (very legally) to a city in the Deep South say that she would rather be gay than be with any of the slovenly, odoriferous, disrespectful, immature boys in her high school. She said that she had never seen boys like that in her life. Heads up, guys.
zebula supports pole smokin month
sick article
Twenty four? Lucky guy!
I'm sick of perverts like Don Lemon & other LGBT'S spreading their perversion even to innocent children. Being born African Amer. or any other minority is not an abomination or perverted lifestyle (by choice). The US is the 21st century Sodom/Gomorrah-thanks to the PERVERTED LGBT's. Next, they will lobby to decrease the age of consent so that they can have access to younger children like their heroes Sandusky
i support your view
Dear Sir or Ma'am,
I can tell that you must be a Christian such as myself. The current argument is that LGTB are born with genes that predispose them to their lifestyle. Instead of ranting about how awful the LGTB community is, may I suggest arguing your side in a logical fashion. Ranting, although it displays your passion, will not "convert" anyone or solve any problems.
I agree Konner. This subject should be discussed in a logical fashion. I have nothing against the LGBT community. I also do not think it should be brought up in school. They took away our right to pray in school and this just seems wrong to me. This is my opinion. On the other hand, if a High School offered an elective class to students who feel the need to get educated on the LGBT community and all that they have achieved, then I see nothing wrong with it. I was taught at a very young age to love everyone and I will continue to live this way and teach my children that same love.
LGBT can not be minorities, a minority is a race and LGBT is a lifestyle and that makes the two entirely different. However to push the liberal agenda down the throats of American the LGBT community wants to cry racism because they have no other course that is legit.
Uh...minority means anything that is less that 50% of the total. For example, you have 8 red marbles and 4 purple...purple marbles are the minority. In this case...straight people are about 97% of the population and and LGBT people are 3%, therefore they are the minority.
wicked !wicked !WICKED !!!what has this kind of wickedness have to be taught to our children ,this is so wicked its just sickening to see in the news ....WHO cares what you do in your private life ,keep it to yourself and don't diease our children with your wickedness !!!!
Wow, really? Such a violent reaction is usually symptomatic of a severe personal problem.
Agreed.
Idk I think being gay is perfectly fine and is not "wicked" at all. I think me n my life partner are a normal couple who love each other just as much as any functional straight couple does. N we don't disease anyone, we just love. Keep you're wickedness and angry to yourself.
Wow, some people should not be allowed to own a computer or have an internet connection.
Point and laugh month!
As soon as somebody says let's have a straight month that'll be turned down because it's discriminatory
every month is straight month.
In the minds of the Liberal Left, if you're white and straight, then you're what's wrong with America.
These are times to celebrate! So many young people who have died because they didn't have a shoulder to cry on, they didn't have a word of understanding telling them they were beautiful as they were. As long as there are people who listen to their hearts and respect diversity, they will never be forgotten in each of our efforts to globalize Human Rights in general and diversity in particular.
I wonder how many have died because they were told from an early age that they were different by their different parents and by the time they were old enough to make their own choice they were so messed up in the head that death seemed to be the better choice.
Um, what?
what about the people that died from that non cureable virus?
You mean black history month?
you got it...black history month, mexican history month, gay history, anything non-white and straight...
You must mean white, straight guys like Mike Sandusky...
That's cool, we recognize black history month too. I think we should also recognize nerdy white guy who wont get laid until he's 24 month. My taxes are paying for it, why not.
Why should you have your own month?