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Gender ID bills signed
Gay panic's 1954 roots
ARTS
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Ty Herndon
Tom of Finland
The
www.ebar.com
Since 1971, the newspaper of record for the San Francisco Bay Area LGBTQ community
Vol. 47 • No. 42 • October 19-25, 2017
Expansion of SF LGBT senior housing begins
LGBTs begin returning home after fires
Willi’s Wine Bar in Santa Rosa, California was destroyed in the wildfires.
Representatives from Openhouse, Mercy Housing, Wells Fargo, local politicians, construction personnel, and others celebrate the groundbreaking of an LGBT-focused senior housing project at 95 Laguna Street.
Courtesy Terri Stark
by Heather Cassell
N
orth Bay LGBTs hit hard by the firestorm that ripped through the heart of wine country began returning home as evacuation orders were lifted and firefighters gained control more than a week after what has now become the worst fires in California’s history. As of Wednesday, the death toll stood at
42, officials said, and includes one person who died at a hospital of smoke inhalation. Firefighters from throughout the state were joined by those from outside California – including Australia and Canada – to help contain the wildfires, which were mostly in Mendocino, Napa, and Sonoma counties. Some people continued to wait anxiously See page 17 >>
Rick Gerharter
by Matthew S. Bajko
T
he asphalt of a former parking lot is rapidly being torn up in order to start construction on a new home for lowincome LGBT seniors in San Francisco. Work on the site at 95 Laguna Street began last Friday, October 13, and an official groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday,
October 17. Invited guests donned hard hats representing the colors of the rainbow flag and wielded shovels to ceremoniously turn over dirt for the occasion. “Today, we redouble our commitment to our groundbreakers, our LGBT seniors, and the community we want to build with them,” said Karyn Skultety, Ph.D., who became the
LGBT history curriculum choices expand
by Matthew S. Bajko
M
any public school children in California likely know that the late gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was the first out elected LGBT leader in the state due to his winning his board seat 40 years ago this November 8. Numerous schools throughout the Golden State teach about the pioneering LGBT rights activist every year on or near May 22, which was Milk’s birthday and is now an unofficial state holiday in California. Ever since 2010 the sitting governor declares the date Harvey Milk Day, due to state lawmakers eight years ago designating it a day of special significance. With schools in session when May 22 falls on a weekday, the annual commemoration of Milk allows schoolteachers an opportunity to bring an LGBT history lesson into their classrooms. Various educational materials about Milk have been created to assist teachers who do. Over the last decade, as more and more educators have sought to teach LGBT history lessons, their curriculum choices have expanded. Their efforts received a significant boost from the passage in 2011 of the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, a California law that requires K-12 history and social science classes to include historical contributions of LGBT and disabled people. “Overwhelmingly teachers want to make
Daniel Nicoletta
Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man elected in California.
sure they are covering this curriculum and want to make sure they are doing it not only because the state education code says they must do it, but because this is a much more complete, relevant, and recognizable way to teach history and the related social sciences,” said Beth Slutsky, Ph.D., a program coordinator at the California History-Social Science Project Statewide Office at UC Davis, where she also teaches history. Her office was contracted by the state to
assist with incorporating the provisions of the FAIR Act into what the state’s public schools are teaching. Its work resulted in the state’s Board of Education last summer updating the History-Social Science Framework that sets out what children are to be taught in kindergarten through 12th grade. LGBT subject matter is now expected to be presented in the second, fourth, fifth, eighth, 11th, and 12th grades. The topics run the gamut from LGBT people who have made significant contributions to society, like Milk and lesbian social worker Jane Addams, who in 1931 was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, to broader subjects like the state’s role in the fight for marriage rights for same-sex couples and how gender identity has been viewed differently by various cultures. Last month, the statewide education board’s Instructional Quality Commission approved nine history-social science K-8 textbooks that incorporate the LGBT subject material after a strong advocacy push by LGBT leaders and educators. The FAIR Education Act Implementation Coalition continues to call for revisions to a 10th textbook the commission approved that omits some of the required LGBT history lessons. The state Board of Education is expected to adopt the new textbooks when it meets in early November. Schools statewide will then be able to purchase the textbooks once they are approved for purchase.
See page 18 >>
“As early as next academic year we could see the textbooks in classrooms,” said Don Romesburg, a gay San Francisco resident who is an associate professor and chair in the Sonoma State University Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the lead scholar of the FAIR ACT coalition. “The textbooks are a great starting point and a great base from which to jump off from teaching about LGBT history.”
More materials needed
Despite the inclusion of the LGBT history lessons in the textbooks, supplemental materials will still be needed to give students more in-depth instruction on specific topics. Asked if there were enough lesson plans currently available on LGBT issues, Slutsky replied “yes and no” depending on the subject matter. “It is easier to build lessons around modern topics because the resources are digitized and students can access them pretty easily,” she explained. For instance, in 11th grade modern U.S. history, students can readily find a wealth of material about the LGBT rights movement. Harder to find, noted Slutsky, are “credible and readable” primary and secondary sources about Native American two spirits, which students in fourth and eighth grades are expected to study. “Certain topics have terrific lessons and See page 17 >>
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