Sally Ride. The first female astronaut and whose namesake inspired Sally Ride Science at the University of California, San Diego. The first American woman to go into space, who tragically died to cancer on July 23rd, 2012. 

Was it mentioned in your history class, that she was lesbian  though?

If your answer is no, that’s a problem.

California in 2019, reported over 89% of LGBTQIA+ students hearing the remark, “gay” in day to day school life, with other instances of discrimination at high rates as well. Even though California was the first state to mandate LGBTQIA+ history being taught, why is there still such high amounts of discrimination in the halls?

I wondered the same question. Even though just last month was LGBTQIA+ History month, did we actually learn any history? If the point of school is to learn, where is that line drawn? Every year, we see photographs of people jumping out of the twin towers, yet we don’t learn about a man who liked another man?

The Colorado government also mandates the teaching of many minorities’ history, including the LGBTQIA+. That may come as a surprise, considering I didn’t even hear about this until recently. It’s been over two years since it originally came into place, yet in my history class we’re not learning about LGBTQIA+, and it turns out it’s the same for others too.

As a student openly in the LGBTQIA+ community, I find this horrible. It might sound dramatic but we are humans too, and everyone deserves a right to share their story. Everyone deserves to know who they are. The LGBTQIA+ has been a punching bag for everyone else, who’s history stretches back further than record.  

It’s estimated that more than 5% of the U.S adult population are a part of the community. That’s nearly one in twenty people, yet we’re still underrepresented. It’s only taught in schools to learn about one person’s history, but not everyone’s. I can name the year the civil war ended, but I was completely clueless about Stonewall until I did personal research. 

I know when the declaration was signed but the aid’s pandemic of the 60s gets completely censored from my history class?

Where does this end? 

The LGBTQIA+ Community deserves a spot in U.S and world history just like everyone else. I didn’t even get into how people can die for just loving who they love. It’s horrible for what we have to go through and how hidden we are in history.

Alexander The Great could’ve been gay, but we don’t know because of all the history we have been shut off from.

Even with the future looking up for the LGBTQIA+ community, it should have never been shunned for so long. Forgotten and buried. 

We deserve a voice in this community.

We deserve our history to be shared and known. 

We deserve.