Maryland To Implement LGBTQ Content In Public Schools Curricula

• The Maryland Department of Education plans to add new LGBTQ standards to curricula in the coming years.
• “I think these curriculum changes are part of building the more inclusive America that our kids deserve,” a state lawmaker said.
• Other states have enacted similar measures. 

Maryland public school history teachers will add LGBTQ content to high school curricula during the next few years, a lawmaker said.

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) agreed to add new “expectations” and implement new standards for the high school U.S. history curricula, according to WUSA9. The changes are expected to be made in 2021 or 2022, the publication reported.

“When we’re teaching history, we want to make sure we teach all of history, and our history the way we teach it has traditionally left out a lot of Americans,” Montgomery County state Del. Eric Luedtke said according to WUSA9. Luedtke said specific lessons will be decided by Maryland school districts.

“I think these curriculum changes are part of building the more inclusive America that our kids deserve,” Luedtke added. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The move comes after lawmakers sent a July 29 letter to Superintendent of Maryland Schools Karen Salmon. “Half a century [after the Stonewall riots], we can find room in our social studies curriculum to ensure that we are teaching the complete story of America,” they wrote according to the New York Daily News.

Luedtke organized the letter and 34 other delegates as well as 13 state senators signed it.

“These are important stories for our teachers to tell, not only for those students who are themselves LGBT or who have a disability, but so all of our students have a basic understanding of the challenges faced by significant segments of American society,” Luedtke wrote in the letter.

The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) communication supervisor, Gboyinde Onijala, said MCPS plans to do more than simply implement changes in the U.S. history curricula.

“MCPS intends to not only implement curricular changes in US History (coming from MSDE) and other social studies classes within units about expansion of civil rights and other historical movements, but also to broaden these efforts beyond history classes,” Onijala said, according to WUSA9. The school district did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

“MCPS is working to ensure that all students see themselves in the curriculum and texts, not only in US History but throughout the instructional program,” Onijala added.

The state and federal Departments of Education did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

Maryland is not the first state to discuss such measures.

The 2016 California Healthy Youth Act, otherwise known as AB-329, mandates teachers and curricula “affirmatively recognize different sexual orientations, be inclusive of same-sex relationships, and teach students about gender, gender identity and gender expression.”

The California Health Education Framework, introduced in May, also notes that as AB-329 orders, teachers must “affirmatively recognize different sexual orientations and be inclusive of same-sex relationships in discussions” and “teach about gender, gender expression, gender identity, and the harm of negative gender stereotypes.”

New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon and Illinois have all begun processes to implement LGBTQ content into school curricula, according to Maryland Matters.