CA Gov. Brown signs new state law requiring LGBT history in textbooks

[Duncan Grant]

Public schools in California will be required to teach students about the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans starting Jan. 1 after Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed a controversial bill to add the topic to the social sciences curriculum.

Textbooks now must include information on the role of LGBT Americans, as well as Americans with disabilities, though California's budget crisis has delayed the purchasing of new books until at least 2015.

"History should be honest," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. "This bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books."

The governor called the legislation, SB48, introduced by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, "historic."

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[RKP5637]

1. Excellent!!! n/t

[slackmaster]

2. California kids will finally get to learn about Alexander the Great, Georgia O'Keefe, Grace Hopper..

and Alan Turing.

[pnwmom]

3. Great! But you know what the publishers are thinking:

they can't sell to California, their 1st or 2nd biggest market, without LGBT history.
And they can't sell to Texas, their other biggest market, WITH it.

So now they'll all be publishing 2 versions of history books. Instead of the single aim-to-please-Texas version they were all publishing before.

[okasha]

4. It will be interesting to see which version is more successful.

Outside the red states, which tend to be relatively sparsely populated, I'm betting the California version will be more profitable.

[w8liftinglady]

5. good point...and kids in Texas will remain clueless.

[CreekDog]

6. I thought textbook publishers created two primary versions (one for CA standards, one for TX)

they are so different and large that they've been doing this for years, apparently.

so California's is a little different than before. there's 40 million people here. they'll make a version that meets the new standards.

(and in the process, other states may end up getting it too)