Gay history to be taught in CA public schools.

This is probably getting blown out of proportion.

 

The children of parents who object to this are the ones who will benefit the most.

 

MSD... that is a mouthful of truth right there.

 

Interestingly, when I was first learning of the WW2, it was 30 to 40 years in the past. The civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, Stonewall and the gay rights movement, etc. are all now 30 to 40 years in the past.

I don't think we can call this history too recent anymore.

 

Here's the deal. As long as society makes a big deal about race, gender, and sexual orientation, etc. we as a society will always treat those minority groups as different. I think that race, gender, or sexual orientation is about as important to a persons accomplishments as what brand of shoes they preferred. It shouldn't be a reason that they get mentioned in a history book, but rather just another trivial bit of info about the person. A persons successes and failures should stand alone regardless of that kind of stuff.

 

I see what you're doing here and I approve.

I think we can abandon treating groups differently once we've decided to treat them all equally for a while.

 

And this is pretty much what the problem is... There are many that suggest we just, "move on". The problem with that is we aren't all treated equally yet. There are still struggles (such as Same Sex Marriage or Equal Pay) that need to be dealt with before we can move on and treat everyone the same.

 

See that's my thought. I totally applaud and understand the need and desire to teach the history, if for nothing else then to help broaden understanding.

But at the same time I think it's singling a select group of people out. Making everyone stop, point, say "ohhhh," and then move on. I think we need to get past labels of black and white, homo or heterosexual and just be human beings.

 

I agree that this should be the ultimate goal. I don't think that it's something that can really be planned on. I know at some point it became okay to be Irish in the US. I can't pinpoint the exact year, but I know it happened. Part of the process is the normalization. I think having gay characters on TV who are complete characters wholly apart from being gay is going to go a long way. I think we will be a lot closer when teaching gay history isn't a big deal anymore.

 

That's all well and good but how does one talk about the struggle and accomplishment of any group (e.g. Black history, Women's rights, etc.) without acknowledging that difference or the reason why what had been done (e.g. emancipation, gaining the vote, etc.).

The solution is not simply to ignore it because then you are back to teaching the "white man's history" and that is no solution.

 

Exactly. It's the shock value of it right now. And with the 24 hour news networks having to literally invent news to justify their existence, when things such as this come up they will continue to get blown out of proportion. Heck with the American public's memory on par with that of a gold fish, it'll only be another week or two at most before this "controversy" is forgotten about.

 

I think the ultimate goal that I envision is integration to the point where there isn't a clear distinction between any of these groups and the dominant culture. It hasn't really gotten to that point with nonwhite minority groups or non-hetero and/or non-male groups.

To go back to the mick example, no one cares about the Irish contribution to history because nobody cares if anyone else is Irish. I'd like to reach that type of across the board identity apathy. We're nowhere near it right now. That being the case, I'm all for underrepresented groups getting more cultural representation.

 

The thing with the Irish is that once you lose the accent (one generation) you lose the difference.

Skin colour, gender and sexual orientation are little more stand outish...

That said, I agree that "identity apathy" is what is needed. I am just not convinced it will ever fully happen.

 

Not as long as we have parents (and society for that matter) telling us that someone of a different skin color or sexual orientation is different and should be shunned.