We launched 2016 with Equality California’s executive director, Rick Zbur who gave us an update on what pro-LGBT legislation Equality California sponsored last year that went into effect this month. He also talked about what’s coming up in 2016 including a focus on “lived equality” beyond “legal equality.”
Professor Don Romesburg, from Sonoma State University, talked about work he is doing on the now 4-year-old Fair and Inclusive Education Act. He is working on a committee to design curriculum and needs your support. Go to the website below to learn more.
And if you are thinking about traveling this year, check out a new LGBT travel app called Wimbify! Alessio Virgili was on live from Italy to tell us how to find that perfect LGBT friendly place to stay abroad.
Email information Don Romesburg spoke about:
Email to send the California Department of Education comments:
Deadline:
February 29, 2016
Specific Call Now for Changes: Include two-spirit traditions in discussions of Native Americans in 4th Grade California History, 5th Grade Early American History, and 8th Grade 19th Century History–Email these requests:
| Chapter 7 | Grade 4 | p. 90 | Line 156, insert: “By exploring Native Californian cultures, students also learn that some Native California cultures accepted third gender roles for females who assumed men’s social roles and males who assumed women’s social roles. Teachers can discuss how tribes such as the Klamath, Tolowa, Yuki, Gabrielino, and Chumash recognized males who preferred to dress and live as women and, in some cases, women who preferred to dress and live as men. Some California tribes granted such two-spirit people important spiritual and social roles, sometimes including marriage.” |
| Chapter 7 | Grade 4 | p. 94 | Lines 247-249, revise to: “Moreover, the imposition of forced labor and highly structured living arrangements negatively impacted scores of communities by degrading individuals, constraining families, circumscribing native culture, and trying to eliminate gender roles and identities among the Indians that Spanish felt were unacceptable.” |
| Chapter 7 | Grade 4 | p. 95 | Line 257, revise and insert: “…fleeing from the padres. Teachers and students could explore the well-documented 18th-century case of a Chumash male-to-female person who, after Santa Clara Mission friars ordered the person to give up women’s clothing and work, ran away from the Mission and resumed a third gender role, which was accepted in the tribe. A few Indians openly revolted…” |
| Chapter 8 | Grade 5 | p. 126 | Line 93, insert: “Students also learn how many American Indian tribes included those referred to by modern scholars as two-spirits. These individuals were believed to manifest both masculine and feminine spirits and had distinct social roles that varied from tribe to tribe. These included healing, transmission of oral traditions and histories, fortune-telling, match-making, and the conferring of names.” |
| Chapter 12 | Grade 8 | p. 363 | Line 936, revise to: “…Native American social systems related to governance, family diversity, and gender diversity, including two-spirit traditions.” |
Questions?
Contact Don Romesburg, Chair and Associate Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies Department, Sonoma State University:don.romesburg@sonoma.edu
Learn More
Equality California
Professor Don Romesburg
Framework Revision (Fair And Inclusive Education Act)
Wimbify App
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