By Jenn Bowman
(Editor’s Note: Teacher Jenn Bowman of San Francisco’s Mission High School is teaching LGBTQ Studies. In this column, Bowman’s students share their thoughts about LGBTQ-related matters, including their concerns, what they have learned in class and more. The students are on spring break now, however, so Bowman herself penned this piece.)
As the teacher of Mission High School’s first LGBTQ+ class, I often feel a pang of jealousy. I think about what it would have been like for myself, as a young questioning queer student, to be exposed to LGBTQ history and gender studies in high school.
My students are so much savvier than myself at that age. Many of them have come to this class with an erudite understanding of the difference between gender and sex, and gender expression versus gender identity. Some of them are LGBTQ+ identified, and all of them know someone who is. A couple of students have been the impetus behind the struggle for a gender-neutral bathroom at Mission. I respect my students’ activist work, and try to design my curriculum to support their efforts.
Still, so many of my current students have not been exposed to the history of struggle and activism in the LGBTQ+ community. The following are reflections from two students in Mission’s first LGBTQ+ class after a unit focusing on the gay rights movement in San Francisco.
“I had no idea that LGBTQ people have gone through the types of experiences with police that people of color go through today. I didn’t know how hard LGBTQ people had to fight for their rights. It’s just not right.”
Nehemias, Grade 10
“I was born and raised in San Francisco. I can’t believe that I’ve never even heard of Harvey Milk. It just seems shocking that no one told me about him in all the years I’ve gone to school here. Harvey Milk was such a hero! Why didn’t our teachers think he was important enough to teach about?”
Blanca, Grade 10
Mark Leno’s FAIR Education Act in 2008, which mandated the inclusion of LGBT history into social studies curriculum, gave teachers like myself a collective sigh of relief. We teachers had been including LGBTQ+ history in our curriculum, but there was always the possibility of a ‘fight’ for its inclusion; this fight could be with irate parents, a homophobic administration, and even with students themselves. Now that we have a law that requires that we include LGBTQ+ history, there is no excuse not to make it happen.
My students are hungry for this knowledge; they want a historical connection. They need to hear stories about leaders like Harvey Milk and the ‘Screaming Queens of the Compton’s Cafeteria.’ They want mentors and heroes. An understanding of LGBTQ+ history could provide a roadmap for their current activism. The struggle and resiliency of the LGBTQ+ community in the first half of last century have such a menacing connection to today’s world under the current Trump administration. The students make the connections themselves.
Mission High School: https://mhs-sfusd-ca.schoolloop.com/
LGBTQ Scholarship Opportunities: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52c7dc91e4b0c06fbd156f6b/t/53b63fb8e4b079c1947dbdfa/1404452792563/LGBTQ.pdf
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