Six on History: LBGTQ Pride
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1) Bibi: A LGBTQ Short Film for Your Classroom, Learning For Justice ( nee Teaching Tolerance)
Bibi: A LGBTQ Short Film for Your Classroom
For those who work to help young people honor their own and others’ complex and unique identities, our classroom film, Bibi, and the lessons for grades 6-12 that accompany it can spark critical conversations about identity, culture, family and belonging. Bibi is a story told through the perspective of Ben, a gay Latinx man, about his complicated relationship with his father and his home. Watch the film and find the lessons here.
Bibi Lessons
- Lesson 1: What Makes Us Who We Are? (6-8)
- Lesson 1: What Makes Us Who We Are? (9-12)
- Lesson 2: Intersectionality in Bibi (6-8)
- Lesson 2: Intersectionality in Bibi (9-12)
- Lesson 3: The Power of Letter Writing (6-8)
- Lesson 3: The Power of Letter Writing (9-12)
Watch the Q&A featuring writer and director Victor M. Dueñas, writer and actor JM Longoria, producers Edward Enriquez-Cohen and Vanessa Perez, and Academy Award-nominated actress Adriana Barraza as they discuss the film Bibi, how they hope educators utilize the lessons of the film and what messages they hope students take away.
- "Recognizing different family structures will make all parents and students feel welcome at school, Jeremy Majeski, an elementary school principal at the American School of Barcelona, writes for Edutopia.
- Majeski writes most schools operate under heteronormative cultures, but schools can modify paperwork to allow parents to identify who they are in relation to their student through drop-down menus or blank spaces, rather than cells for just "mother" and "father." Additionally, school-wide events should be organized to include all types of parent combinations.
- Word choices and body language convey acceptance, as well. Professional development can help teachers and staff members feel more comfortable addressing LBGTQ parents.
The first step in developing an LBGTQ-friendly school is to provide diversity trainings, such as those outline in the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network resource "Tackling Gay Issues in School." Displaying pro-gay signs and symbols can also portray acceptance.
Gay Pride week can be recognized along with Black, Hispanic and Women’s History months, and the formation of gay-straight alliance groups further support that effort. Though there may be some resistance, the primary focus is on creating a harassment-free environment without homophobia and other forms of discrimination.
Cultivating inclusion for students of all backgrounds starts with taking a proactive approach to diversity. This can be facilitated by creating a culture of acceptance and adding classroom activities that support diverse worldviews, such as highlighting different cultural perspectives during a history lesson. In the long run, these efforts benefit all students, as those who attend schools with diverse populations develop an appreciation for other cultures and backgrounds.
Conversations about race, sexual orientation and religious backgrounds can often be uncomfortable, but are also crucial. Avoiding the topics don’t make them go away, and creating space for difficult talks allows unity to build and healing to happen. Educators can also encourage students to seek out the experiences of others in their own community."
"In 1964, the year Damron first published his Address Book, gay sex was considered a crime in every state except Illinois, and the Stonewall Uprising, widely credited with sparking the contemporary gay rights movement, was still five years away. To ensure his work reached its intended audience, Damron plugged into existing networks within the underground gay community, adding his handbook to the array of erotica, pulp novels, physique magazines and other printed materials available to those in the know. Per Gonzaba, Damron also sent guides to establishments featured in the text so they could sell copies to patrons.
“The minute you enter the gay world via one of these sites,” says Gonzaba, “ … you can possibly buy access to even more of the gay culture, [identifying] more spaces by buying this guide and being able to see other places that might be of interest to you in other cities.”
According to Los Angeles magazine’s Kate Sosin, Damron visited 200 cities across 37 states in the first year of publication alone. Almost every year thereafter, he released at least one new edition of the guide, adding entries submitted by readers and revising existing listings based on his trips back to the places mentioned. In some cases, he removed businesses because police crackdowns had rendered them unsafe for queer visitors.
Damron’s Address Books weren’t the only gay travel guides available during the latter half of the 20th century, but as Mapping the Gay Guides points out, “They were the original and remained the gold standard, especially for men, through the 1990s.”
One year later, in 1970, activists like Brenda Howard brainstormed an alternative set of marches that would embrace the new ethos of gay liberation. Their solution was Christopher Street Liberation Day—a celebration that commemorated the anniversary of Stonewall every June 28. Planning documents for the march, according to Katherine McFarland Bruce’s book Pride Parades, emphasized that, unlike at the Reminder marches, “no dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration.” These marches would also be national in scope—in a foreshadowing of Pride celebrations today, they wanted "a nationwide show of support" for gay rights.
The new tactics proved a success. During the first Christopher Liberation Day in 1970, so many marchers showed up that the New York iteration stretched for 15 blocks according to a contemporaneous report from The New York Times. Chicago and San Francisco held liberation marches of their own—as did Los Angeles, where activists only received the right to gather after the ACLU fought against a last-ditch attempt by the city to block the parade.
"Is this really happening again? In 2021?
Seven years after an act of parliament made homosexuality a crime punishable by death, the anti-gay campaigners of Uganda are at it again. Last month, the parliament of my country once again voted to make homosexuality a criminal offence, this time with a 10-year prison sentence.
In 2014, I played a small part in making sure that anti-LGBTQI forces in Uganda do not succeed in writing their hate into law: I was one of the petitioners in the case that successfully overturned the infamous anti-gay law. Back then, we had the entire political system – every single legislator, both from the government and the opposition, save I and one other – against us. But with an independent and capable judiciary, the Act was annulled. The government chose not to appeal.
Fortunately, this time we are unlikely to need to go to such lengths. Passed in the final days of an outgoing parliament, through a private member’s bill introduced by an outgoing legislator, and without government support, this legislation needs assent. The government has already indicated this will not be granted, so the legislation will not become law.
The Ugandan government will not sign this anti-gay legislation into law in part because it was introduced by an outgoing legislator and approved by a now-dissolved parliament. But there is also the fact that granting assent to this law – not least when it was not legislation the government put forward – would trigger an outcry from the international community.
Indeed, after Uganda passed the “Kill the gays bill” – as it was dubbed locally – in 2014, its reputation on the international arena suffered. Not only did the British and American governments, encouraged by global rights groups and LGBTQI campaigners, raise the spectre of retaliation, but the World Bank decided to rescind a $90m loan to Uganda’s health system. Our sovereign credit rating also took a hit due to the passing of the anti-gay law. Certainly, after the experience of 2014 the Ugandan government is surely less willing to grant assent to similar legislation that would undoubtedly draw condemnation and an unwelcome response from the international community.
While the efforts of LGBTQI campaigners across the globe made it highly unlikely for Uganda to sign into law another “Kill the gays bill”, the fight for LGBTQI rights in the country and the rest of Africa is far from over.
The fear of retaliation from the international community may stop Uganda and other African countries from attempting to officially criminalise homosexuality, but it will not make being gay socially acceptable on the continent. Today, homosexuality is simply not accepted by the majority of African citizens. And the LGBTQI fight for equality and recognition in Africa will not be over until it is.
Ultimately, it will not matter how many court cases are won, or governments pressured to cease anti-gay legislation, or African leaders backed by western money and education elected with the expectation they will challenge public perceptions of homosexuality.
President Adama Barrow of Gambia reneged on his pledge to do so, despite being ushered into office by US Democratic lobbyists. Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta did nothing to further LGBTQI rights in his country, despite his liberal Amherst College education. We must know by now that African politicians – just like their western counterparts – follow public opinion, rather than lead it.
Neither should we be so certain, as some are, that the pervasiveness of anti-LGBTQI sentiment in Africa is owing to some malignant and deceptive Christian influence. Most Africans are refusing to accept homosexuality not so much because of their Christian beliefs, but because they perceive it as a “Western value” being forcefully pushed upon their societies by malignant and invasive outside forces.
But all this does not mean there is no chance for widespread LGBTQI equality and acceptance in Uganda and on the continent. Times, and people, are changing. In 2014, only 17 percent of the Ugandan population had internet access. Today, nearly every adult in the country has the ability to go online. As a result, the minds of our people are rapidly opening to new ways of thinking and seeing the world.
This newfound access to knowledge, information and differing points of view is having a vast, transformational effect on the electorate. With our youthful population, so many young, knowledgeable Ugandans, who do not carry strong anti-gay sentiments, and even support LGBTQI rights, are joining the electoral roll in every election cycle.
We are already seeing the consequences of this gradual change. Two years after our legal victory against the “Kill the gays bill”, the Ugandan electorate had rewarded me for my efforts by turfing me out of parliament at the 2016 general election. This year, they turfed me back in by a landslide. Among those rejected at the polls this year was the MP whose anti-gay private members bill brought this issue back to parliament. Another was our country’s opposition leader, Bob Wine, who began his political career in 2014 singing pop songs about burning homosexuals. He was defeated this January by a margin of nearly 2.5 million votes.
Will Uganda pass another law criminalising homosexuality in the future? If it does, we will contest it again, fight it again, and overturn it again.
But I doubt another such bill will come to pass. The times are changing. The electorate is changing and, consequently, legislators are changing.
