LGBTQ+ HISTORY LESSON PLANS
One Institute has partnered with the UCLA History-Geography Project, OUT for Safe Schools at LA LGBT Center, and ONE Archives at the USC Libraries to host K-12 curriculum symposiums and provide LGBTQ+ history lesson plans for educators at no cost. The lesson plans comply with California’s FAIR Education Act and History-Social Science Framework, which requires California K–12 schools to integrate fair, accurate, inclusive and respectful representations of LGBTQ+ communities into their social studies and history classes.
We invite you to read and download the lesson plans featured below.
For inquiries about the LGBTQ+ Lesson Plans, please email Trevor Ladner, Education Programs Manager, at [email protected].
EXPLORE LESSON PLANS
AIDS & HIV Activism
Help students understand why and how activists responded to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Grades 11-12, U.S. History/Government/Civics
Audre Lorde
Analyze Audre Lorde’s writings to explore intersectionality, power and privilege.
Grades 11-12, U.S. History/Civics/Government
Bayard Rustin
Learn about Bayard Rustin’s identity and how it shaped his beliefs and actions.
Grades 11-12, U.S. History/Civics/Government
Black Cat Riots
Explore the causes of the Black Cat Riots in Los Angeles’ Silverlake neighborhood.
Grade 11-12, U.S. History/Civics/Government
Daughters of Bilitis
Assess how the Daughters of Bilitis’ The Ladder magazine supported lesbians in the 1950s.
Grade 11, U.S. History
FAIR Education Act
Explore students’ rights to LGBTQ+ representation in the classroom as set forth in the FAIR Education Act.
Grade 12, Civics/Government
Harvey Milk
Investigate how Harvey Milk’s leadership and the Briggs Initiative united marginalized groups.
Grades 11-12, U.S. History/Civics/Government
Hollywood, 1920s–1930s
Were LGBT Americans welcome in Hollywood during the 1920s and 1930s?
Grades 9 & 11, California History/U.S. History
LGBTQ Civil Rights
Examine how the movement for LGBTQ+ rights were part of the broader Civil Rights Movement.
Grades 9, 11-12; California History/U.S. History/Civics/Government
LGBTQ Equality, 1950–1970
Interrogate how the LGBTQ+ movement went from assimilation to coming out from 1950–1970.
Grade 9 & 11, California History/U.S. History
Magnus Hirschfeld
Explore how Magnus Hirschfeld advocated for LGBTQ+ people in Germany and abroad.
Grade 10, World History
Urbanization & Gender
Evaluate how urbanization challenged gender role in the late nineteenth century.
Grades 8 & 11, Geography/U.S. History
Vietnam War
Explore how sexuality and social conditions impacted LGBTQ+ Americans during the Vietnam War.
Grade 11, U.S. History
World War I
Evaluate the role female impersonation played in various WWI soldier camp performances.
Grades 8 & 11, U.S. History
LGBTQ Freedom of Speech
Explore how One, Inc. v. Olesen expanded freedom of speech for the LGBTQ+ community.
Grades 11-12, U.S. History/Civics/Government
American Psychiatric Association
Explore how the Biltmore Invasion lead to the de-pathologization of homosexuality.
Grade 11, U.S. History/Psychology
We want to thank the following teachers for their work in creating these LGBTQ+ History Lesson Plans: Elana Goldbaum, Hala Dillsi, Sasha Guzman, Miguel Covarrubias, Eunice Ho, Chris Lewis, Emily Waldron, Marika Manos, Peta Lindsay, Oliver Treanor Miska, Aditi Doshi and Israel Calderon.