Time to sway that flag.  On Aug. 12, Illinois signed House Bill 246 into law, making it the fourth state to make it mandatory to teach LGBT+ history. The first three states were California in 2011, followed by New Jersey and Colorado in early 2019.

When these laws go into effect next year, a majority of schools in these states will update their textbooks and curriculum to incorporate LGBT+ history.

Along with these changes in April, Arizona repealed a law that banned teachers from talking about LGBT+ related topics.

With three states passing the law in the span of half a year, more states could consider passing a law like this faster than we think.

This isn’t a bad thing at all, I feel people should be aware about how LGBT+ history has contributed to our world and culture.

Teachers in some states face restrictions on what they can talk about, especially when it comes to LGBT+ related topics.

Along with that, six states have anti-LGBT+ curriculum laws that restrict the teaching of LGBT+ related topics. 

Now, with all of that in mind, we can connect it to Har-Ber. LGBT+ is very underrepresented at Har-Ber, in my opinion.

Some schools, like Springdale High School, openly have a Gay-Straight Alliance, a lot better than what Har-Ber is doing.

Honestly, with states passing these laws so quickly I wouldn’t be surprised if Arkansas hopped on that train soon enough.  According to arktimes.com, less than 8% of classes taught in Arkansas have positive representations of LGBT+ people, history, or events.

LGBT+ events in history shouldn’t be cut from classrooms. They’re just as important to history as anything else.

At the very least, there could be separate classes for that sort of stuff.  Just a bit of representation in the classroom would be nice.