Being the compassionate, angry, queer teenager I was by the time I got to high school wasn’t easy during these lessons, but paying close attention to them did help me gather tools to both open my mind to other possibilities and embrace the fact that there was so much more I needed to learn. Growing up and going to elementary, middle, and high school in Florida wasn’t much different save for a couple of teachers who, in retrospect, did what they could with the tools they had to show us different perspectives. In all our attempts to maintain the status quo, we purposely leave out the histories of the people who have fought the hardest to simply exist here, to get the care they want and deserve. So much is left out of what we teach them: Instead of teaching them the revolutionary truths of the fight for civil rights and the labor movement or the possibilities that exist beyond white supremacy and racial capitalism, we give them a sanitized version of “how far this country has come.” We give them something to be “proud” of. It’s not a secret that American students almost never receive the historical and political education they need and deserve in our schools. The truth is, as hard as I ride for it now, there was a time when I couldn’t imagine living here anymore, too.
LGBTQ Television Guide: What To Watch Now.
