California’s FAIR Education Act: Addressing the Bullying Epidemic by Ending the Exclusion of LGBT People and Historical Events in Textbooks and Classrooms

Five years ago, 15-year-old Larry King was sitting in an eighth-grade computer lab at E. O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, when his life came to a tragic end. Larry was shot twice in the back of the head by another student, Brandon McInerney, a 14-year-old peer who was openly displeased with Larry’s gender expression. The incident stunned the nation and renewed focus on the epidemic of bullying among young people in the United States, and especially youth who identify as or are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).

Although many things transpired between Larry and Brandon that we will never know or understand, it is clear that Larry drew Brandon’s attention when he began wearing women’s clothing, jewelry, heels, and makeup to school. His differences made Brandon uncomfortable, and Brandon was not shy about making that known to Larry and others.

As a California State Senator and an openly gay man, I am haunted by stories of LGBT youth like Larry, who are tormented because they do not fit into the perfect gender norm that society and their peers have prescribed for them. They are teased, shamed, bullied, and harassed simply because they stand out as different. Despite successful efforts in California during the past decade to pass laws intended to make schools safer for LGBT students, we continue to hear about young people who are bullied, at times violently, or are so mistreated by their own peers that they take their own lives. Clearly, our work to help promote understanding within our schools has only scratched the surface.

In 2010, I introduced the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act in the California Legislature. The FAIR Education Act ensures that LGBT people and historical events affecting the LGBT community are included in California’s history books and social sciences instructional materials. It also prevents classroom materials from having a discriminatory bias or negative stereotype based solely on a person’s sexual orientation. Few lesson plans include information about the 40-year civil rights struggle for LGBT Americans, including the Stonewall Riots in New York in 1969, a catalyst for the modern-day struggle for LGBT civil rights and equality. Likewise, there is an absence of information about the implementation and repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that prevented LGBT service members from serving openly in our armed forces. Our history books rarely mention Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California, who was assassinated, along with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, in 1978. Nor do they mention Matthew Shepard, the Laramie, Wyoming, teenager who was murdered in 1998 because he was gay. Yet our country’s 2009 Hate Crimes Prevention Act was named partly in Matthew’s memory. The FAIR Education Act, which became California law in 2011, ensures that LGBT Americans like Harvey Milk and Matthew Shepard are included and recognized for their important contributions to the economic, political, and social development of our state and nation.

Our collective silence on LGBT issues in the classroom has had detrimental consequences. Research indicates that the exclusion of LGBT people and events from history books perpetuates negative stereotypes of the LGBT community and leads to increased bullying of LGBT young people. In the 2011 National School Climate Survey, the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) reports that school materials including positive representations of LGBT people, history, and events help promote respect for LGBT students and improve a student’s overall school experience. The study, which surveyed pupils from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, found that students enrolled in schools that have inclusive curriculum heard fewer homophobic remarks and negative comments about a person’s gender expression compared to students in schools that did not have inclusive curriculum. These same students also reported feeling more safe at school, had better school attendance, and were more likely to report that their classmates were somewhat or very...