Gilbert Sewall documents for American Spectator readers the fight over California school textbooks and explicit references to LGBT figures in American history.
In 2006, Sen. Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica — the state’s first openly gay legislator — introduced a bill that would require textbooks to include LGBT contributions to state and national history. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, calling it redundant and unnecessary, citing previous anti-discrimination laws and state guidelines for recognized groups, including LGBT. Five years later, a second bill, widely known as FAIR — for Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful — similarly required texts to highlight LGBT issues. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the FAIR bill into law. …
… Several Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) books didn’t meet California reviewers’ requests for explicit references. The publisher’s middle-school text failed to sexualize historical figures Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and James Buchanan, for example. The HMH rejection is ironic since, in 1990, Houghton Mifflin gained what amounted to a state monopoly, creating textbooks to match California’s daring new content framework.
The “achievements of people who experience or express sexual desire for their own sex as well as those who do not conform to conventional gender norms are central to both United States history and culture,” the publisher argued. “However, HMH feels that the terms lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer are contemporary terms that may not map well on past lives and experiences.”
Not good enough, the state’s review commission responded: “The absence of specific labels regarding sexual orientation creates an adverse reflection because the identity of these individuals is not honored and demeans their contributions to history.”
McGraw-Hill reportedly agreed to most corrections that the commission suggested. However, it challenged sexualizing some historical figures, as “they raise complex issues related to academic integrity, including factual verification, language and readability.”
