LGBTQIA+ History and Why It Matters (UK)
Duration
One 50-min class periodLanguage
English — UKPublished
Overview
About This Lesson
LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer and questioning, intersex, asexual, and other non-heterosexual identities) history is often underrepresented in the curriculum and the UK’s wider history. While many students have heard about some events in LGBTQIA+ history (such as the Stonewall Riots or the story of Alan Turing, the mathematician whose work was central to cracking the wartime Enigma codes, but who was convicted and chemically castrated for being gay - he later died by suicide), many significant people and events in the history of the LGBTQIA+ rights movement remain unacknowledged in schools. In this lesson, students will learn about LGBTQIA+ history spanning from the Roman Empire to the year 2021 by participating in a human timeline activity. The resources in this activity have been created using information and resources from Stonewall, an international organisation with the mission “to stand for lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, questioning and ace (LGBTQIA+) people everywhere,” so that they can express themselves freely and without fear of discrimination.
By examining the broader sweep of LGBTQIA+ history, this lesson helps students put people and events into more meaningful context. This lesson also gives students the opportunity to consider whose experiences are included in the history taught in schools, whose are often left out, and how that may reflect and perpetuate the “in” groups and “out” groups in our society. Over the course of this lesson, students will practice important skills such as summarizing, inferencing, and presenting material orally as they learn about LGBTQIA+ history and reflect on how that history is represented in their textbooks and curricula.
Lesson Plans
Activities