On October 26th, The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, expanded its Justice For All educational curriculum to cover issues addressing gender identity and expression. The newest addition to the curriculum provides educators with three new lesson plans that will help them to engage their students in discussing gender identity and how gender identity discrimination affects people in education, employment, and family law.
"Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history and legal rights have been overlooked in educational curricula around the country. It is our hope that the gender identity curriculum will encourage teachers to discuss gender identity and expression openly and frankly with their students," said Human Rights Campaign Foundation President Joe Solmonese.
Created through a grant from the Open Society Institute, the Justice For All program was developed to inform the public about the importance of an independent judiciary in protecting the civil rights of LGBT Americans. In particular, the Justice For All program responds to rhetorical attacks on "activist judges" by opponents of LGBT civil rights, increases awareness on attempts by state and federal legislators to reduce the power of the judicial branch, and highlights the growing threats of violence against federal and state judges who have been involved in deciding LGBT civil rights cases.
In 2006, the Justice For All curriculum was created to provide college and high school educators in the fields of social studies, history, government, and humanities with the tools to discuss issues affecting LGBT civil rights with their students. The gender identity lesson plans are the second expansion of the curriculum, which earlier this year was modified to include sections on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
To date, educators from over 650 colleges, high schools, and middle schools have used the Justice For All curriculum in teaching thousands of students the fundamentals of civil rights and how these issues affect the LGBT community. Educators who are interested in learning more about the gender identity modules or the entire Justice For All curriculum can visit the Justice For All website at http://www.HRC.org/justice .
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