Sorry, I was unaware I had a separate history from straight people.

This is why I have a problem with GLBT month and Black History Month and all the other months dedicated to specific minority.

In high school, February 1st would roll around and suddenly every class would switch from the “normal” syllabus to the Black History Month syllabus. African American literature, African American history, etc. etc. etc. in every class. I always found this to be a little bit…racist. I always felt Women’s history month was little sexist too.

*insert gasp from the readers*

Yeah, I know. The whole point of these months is to combat racism and sexism right?

Unfortunately it’s just another form of “separate, but equal”. Sort of saying, let’s talk about all the accomplishments these people made, but point out the “handicap” they had to overcome to accomplish these things.

Sorry, I don’t think we especially need to point out that someone was a women, black (now gay, as California wants to point out in history class) to talk about their contributions to history.

Now, if the fact that they were female, black or gay is important to their historical contribution, (Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, Barack Obama*, Oscar Wilde, The Stonewall Riots) then you need to bring up the fact that they were female, black or gay because it’s important!  You don’t leave out important parts about a person’s background just because you don’t approve, but it’s equally unnecessary to point out “this person was gay” when it wasn’t important to their contributions, which is essentially what that law in California will end up doing.

See, I don’t have a separate history from the rest of the world. Gay people are human beings, just like everyone else. Isn’t that what this argument about gay equal rights is all about? We are all the same. I don’t want to have a separate section in the history books for “gay and lesbian contributions in history”. I don’t want a law that “would prohibit material that reflects adversely on gays.”

I want schools to teach history, real history, the way history happened. Without political and religious bias used to indoctrinate children into certain ways of thought. I want important historical contributions to be discussed throughout the school year, whether the contributions were made by men, women, blacks, whites, gay, straight, protestant, Catholic, Buddhist or Hindu. Is that so much to ask?

Apparently it is.

 

*Being black…and a socialist… is his only historical contribution…