Western Region: c/o

Jean Richter, phone=510-864-7962

email richter@eecs.berkeley.edu

The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project utilizes proactive strategies to improve the treatment of LGBT persons in K-12 educational systems. Advocates for The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project provide testimony before state and local boards of education, meet with educational policy makers at all levels of government, inform the public about educational equity issues, and furnish various resources for addressing these subjects in the classroom. We call for an end to the censorship of information about our communities in textbooks, course content, resource materials, and library offerings associated with public education.

We believe that elementary and secondary curricula should include:

Fair and accurate information about sexual orientation in sex education, social studies, humanities, and family life classes.

Information about the historical and continuing contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to art, language, education, science, sport, etc.

Discussion of the LGBT liberation movement and the history of the struggle for equality for sexual minorities in the United States and throughout the world.

Documentation of significant social, legal and historical events, including the National Marches on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979, 1987, and 1993; the Stonewall Resistance of 1969 and its 25th Anniversary commemoration in 1994, and the struggle for privacy and civil rights via the courts, (e.g. Bowers v. Hardwick, the Gay Olympics case, and the cases having to do with the rights of LGBT people to serve in the Armed Forces and to be recognized legally as parents).