(Photo Credits: Screengrab from KGW News’ Official YouTube Account)
Seattle — Washington’s public schools are set to introduce a new curriculum beginning in the 2025-2026 academic year.
Governor Jay Inslee recently signed Senate Bill 5462 into law, which will require students to study the historical contributions of marginalized communities, including the LGBTQ+ community.
SB 5462 was initially proposed in January. The bill underwent extensive deliberations, including multiple committee meetings, public hearings, and over a dozen revisions throughout the legislative session. Despite LGBTQ not being explicitly mentioned in the bill’s language, its ultimate goal was to ensure inclusivity and recognition of the contributions made by individuals from diverse backgrounds.
With the bill now enacted into law, the state is tasked with developing a curriculum that celebrates the significant contributions of people from various races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations.
The news earned various reactions.
Brian Noble, who is with the Family Policy Institute of Washington, said in an interview with KOMO News: “I don’t believe that’s the state’s responsibility. When you break down our main reason for being opposed to more or less the sexualization of children at that very young age.”
He reiterated that he has “no problem with us informing about cultures about different areas like that.” He added, “But when it comes to our sexual behavior, those histories and what we’re heightening as acceptable, and as normal, I do believe the conversation should happen between the child and their parent or parents.”
In conclusion, Noble said, “I think that we should pump the brakes. The fact is we just need to get back to reading, writing, and arithmetic.”
Meanwhile, a certain Gary Wilson said during a public hearing in Olympia: “This bill, forcing curriculum selection that would praise and highlight gay pride activists or gender-confused individuals, will only drive more parents away as our public education system seeks to promote agendas over public education.”
There are, of course, also others who are all for it. For one, Ken Shulman, the executive director of Lambert House in Seattle, a youth center supporting LGBTQ individuals and addressing their health disparities, emphasized the ongoing erasure of LGBTQ identities in schools and many other settings. Shulman noted the challenges faced by young people in accepting and understanding marginalized communities when their existence is overlooked in educational settings. He said, “LGBTQ identities were erased in schools and largely in most places they still are.” He added, “It’s considered too controversial to mention to kids that Thoreau was gay, or Walt Whitman was gay. Allen Turing who invented the first computer, helped serve the Enigma code and win World War 2 was gay.”
Further, Kristie Bennett, a high school educator in Sammamish, Washington, who oversees her school’s Gender-Sexuality Alliance, showcasing her commitment to fostering inclusion and understanding among students. As a bisexual individual herself, Bennett recognizes the significance of representation in the school environment for students grappling with their own identities. She said, “I’ve seen firsthand how important an inclusive curriculum can be and how life-changing it can be to help a student.”
By June 2025, state education officials will update a model policy, with the expectation that by October of the following year, all public schools in Washington will implement the revised curriculum. Read this story in full here and here.
“Good news” from a state that has lost over 23,000 people since 2020. Another reason for its negative population growth. I’m all for LGTBQ+ history being added to school curriculums. I’m also for it being added in context of how much of the overall population is LGTBQ+. It should be added to that extent. That’s fairness. That’s equality. Students, unfortunately, are pouring out of public schools with little understanding of how to manage money (even write a check), file taxes, fill a car with gas, cook for themselves, do laundry, participate in a job interview, read and write in cursive… Read more »
Genetics 101:
Homosexuals are created through Heterosexual Sex.
A4A Blogger
IVF as well. Just saying.
I agree completely. And it’s not just the LGBTQXYZ bunch that end up this way due to the loss of focus on the basics and advanced sciences, mathematics, history, language, and arts. This plays into the WEF’s plans on “You will own nothing and be happy” garbage under the guise of the false notion of equality. The fact is there is no such thing as equality except under the law and we’re losing that battle as evidenced by the weaponization of the legal system. It’s true. Liberalism is a mental disorder in which only feelings matter and neither logic nor… Read more »
“Public schools have been hijacked into teaching a Progressive/Liberal doctrine/agenda covering “feel good” topics. “ Right. It’s not the job of history to make you feel good about yourself; the goal is to give you the knowledge needed to function well in an educated society. So, disproportionate focus on stuff like LGTBQ or African American history doesn’t serve that purpose, nor does ignoring classical literature because it was produced by white males. “Students, unfortunately, are pouring out of public schools with little understanding of how to manage money” Sorry, that’s not the job of schools. I’m more concerned that schools have… Read more »
Laundry a nice to have skill? Looks like you’ve never been told you have to work closely with someone who has no clue or have interviewed one who doesn’t.
You can Legislate Tolerance
but
You cannot Legislate Acceptance.
Tolerance is forced;
Acceptance is Voluntary.
This Bill forces integration without representation.
There is not very much of it that would be appropriate except in high schools as part of social studies and civil rights movements.
It’s about time actually, for a very long time; history has tried to act as if there’s no such thing as homosexuality or that it’s bad, as it is just as old as heterosexuality, that’s religion getting in the way, again. No one has ever chosen to be gay, but rather to except it, as part of who nature has decided, they are as far as orientation, sexually. I’ve always said, “it’s just nature’s checks and balances in terms of human populous.” This maybe, the beginning of the end, for this kind of controversy, every time one of ‘us’ does… Read more »
Lamar:
Homosexuality was acknowledged while I was in HS.
Tennessee Williams’ homosexuality was discussed and dissected as was Bernstein’s Homosexuality when studying Relates Arts.
Oscar Wilde’s Homosexuality was discussed as well as the “Eaton Sex Scandals” of the late 1800s.
Homosexuality was not unknown in my day and it was discussed while I was a Cadet – although with palatable disgust and intolerance.
However, the discussion was predicated on academics not lifestyles. There was a certain
“Neutrality” associated with its discussion. It wasn’t perfect but it was somewhat functional.
. . . And? Is this a challenging or agreeing or what, I don’t understand your input here, or even, what you’re trying to say.
I’m taking about the mechanisms of homosexuality, i.e., such as what happens in the womb, which is where homosexuality begins, actually. . .
Getting a little carried away…