Teacher Lyndsey Schlax of the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts is teaching the nation’s first on-site high school LGBT course, according to district officials. In this column, students from her class will be anonymously sharing with the San Francisco Bay Times their thoughts about related matters, and what they are learning in the groundbreaking course, “LGBTQ Studies.”
Student- 9th Grade
A popular figure of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes, who is known to have written about African American identity in the 20th century. What he is not known for is his homosexuality; he remained closeted.
When I learned about him in 5th grade, we were not taught about that aspect of his identity. Hughes is not the only victim of this phenomenon: attitudes toward homosexual soldiers were poor during World War II, and thousands were dishonorably discharged because of their orientation. During the Cold War, homophobia was branded as “patriotism” as we put homosexuals in the same box as godless commies in what is known as the Lavender Scare.
Ms. Schlax’s class is the first I have heard of the LGBTQ experience in American history. But the phenomenon is more ancient than our nation. In classical Greece, older men regularly had mentoring and sexual relationships with teenage boys, in what we now call pederasty. Taught in 6th grade World History class? Nope.
In South Asia, transgender women formed communities led by a mother figure away from their home tribes. These people are known as hijras, and are fighting for representation in Indian government today. Of them, I have heard little.
Our curriculum cannot ignore such a historied and persecuted people. If the objective of a history class is to teach our history, culture and society, should these people remain in the dark? Why do the few men of high office get so much attention when millions go without being taught about?
LGBTQ studies is an essential class for the America of the 21st century, as much as one on our government and ethnicities. In the five weeks I have attended her class, I have learned a lifetime of knowledge about the LGBTQ, and I think others deserve the same.
Student- 12th Grade
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
-Langston Hughes
Most English classes will analyze this poem as a perspective on the American Dream from a black man who cannot attain the white picket fence, the dependable salary in exchange for hard work, and the family. They will praise the author for his poem. They will omit the fact that many of his poems reference his homosexuality. Perhaps someone’s sexuality is not essential to their work, but as artists, the people of the Harlem Renaissance reflected their lives through their art.
Their sexuality was part of their lives and their identity.
The Harlem Renaissance is taught in schools as a black movement. While that is true, it was also clearly an LGBTQ movement. Artists in the Harlem Renaissance who identified as LGBTQ, whether through their ap-pearance, art or word of mouth, include Gladys Bentley, Richard Nugent, Countee Cullen, Angelina Weld and Ma Rainey.
Ma Rainey’s song “Prove It on Me Blues” explicitly states LGBTQ sexuality in the chorus: They say I do it. Ain’t nobody caught me, You all got to prove it on me; Went out last night, with a crowd of my friends, They must’ve been womens, ‘cause I don’t like no mens. Wear my clothes just like a man, Talk to the gals, just like any old man The teasing that Ma Rainey does, taunting people to prove it on her, was a reality for many people. In Harlem slang, LGBTQ activity was referred to as Your likker told you (misguided behaviors).
As Langston Hughes talked about in his poem CAFE: 3 A.M., there was such a thing as a vice squad who were preoccupied with capturing individuals in immoral acts, such as homosexuality. These organizations set out to break up rent parties where homosexual activity was present. In this report from the Harlem Newspaper The New York Age, we can see the outraged outlook outsiders had on homosexuality in Harlem and its tenants: “One of these rent parties a few weeks ago was the scene of a tragic crime in which one jealous woman cut the throat of another, because two were rivals for the affections of a third woman. The whole situation was on a par with the recent Broadway play [about lesbianism, The Captive], imported from Paris, although the underworld tragedy took place in this locality. In the meantime, the combination of bad gin, jealous women, a carving knife, and a rent party is dangerous to the health of all concerned.” All of this LGBTQ history in American History is omitted from textbooks and lessons, but LGBTQ Studies aims to include the large influence LGBTQ people have had on history. For more information about the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, please visit http://www.sfsota.org/
Student Voices
PHOTO BY JO LYNN OTTO
Lyndsey Schlax has been a teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District since 2008. She is uniquely qualified to address multiple areas of LGBT studies, having also specialized in subjects such as Modern World History, Government, Economics and U.S. Politics. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, and earned her M.A. in Teaching at the University of San Francisco.
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