Gays are trying to match the success other groups have had in raising awareness about overlooked parts of the American past. Black History Month has focused attention on African-Americans. But in the current conservative climate, gays are learning that their new quest won’t be easy. Although LeHaye’s fund-raising appeal conjures images of school libraries stocked with gay magazines like Honcho and Planet Homo, in fact not a single school district in the nation has accepted the history-month idea or a proposed gay curriculum. Even the NEA has gotten skittish after hundreds of teachers threatened to quit when the resolution passed in July.

The curriculum does not suggest discussing the mechanics of homosexuality. Advocates would be happy if schools just acknowledged the homosexuality of figures like Julius Caesar and Michelangelo. “We’ve sanitized history too much,” says Rodney Wilson, the gay high-school teacher from suburban St. Louis who came up with the history-month idea last year. Since he began the crusade, Wilson’s group has received 10,000 requests for information.

Advocates also want to detail the long history of homosexual persecution. They say students should be taught that in 1777 Thomas Jefferson attempted-unsuccessfully-to liberalize Virginia’s sodomy laws by reducing the penalty from death to castration; that George Washington kicked a soldier out of the Continental Army for being gay; and that, in 1953, Eisenhower required government employees to swear they weren’t communist–or gay.

But gay history faces unique problems. Many famous men and women destroyed evidence of their liaisons, so proof is often sketchy. The theory that Lincoln was gay–espoused by a Tufts professor in an essay entitled “Was Abe Lincoln Gay, Too? A Divided Man to Heal a Divided Age”–relies largely on the fact that Lincoln shared a room, and a bed, with a man for three years while a struggling lawyer. And advocates haven’t yet figured out how to deal with gays who aren’t heroes. Despite the interest in Lincoln, there is actually more evidence that his predecessor, James Buchanan, was gay, according to the textbook “Gay American History.” Buchanan, “The Bachelor President,” had a long-term relationship with a senator from Alabama, whom Andrew Jackson mockingly called “Miss Nancy.” But Buchanan, who presided over the disintegration of the union, is also one of the worst presidents in history. He didn’t make the curriculum.

Because gay history focuses so much on proving the homosexuality of the famous, some scholarship can read like a romance novel. Consider this line from Lorena Hickok to Eleanor Roosevelt: “I’ve been trying today to bring back your face… and the feeling of that soft spot just northeast of the corner of your mouth against my lips.” Compared with lectures about the Stamp Act or Lend Lease, gay history has the potential to be, well, quite interesting.

Advocates are pressing high schools to teach the history of homosexuality. A sample quiz:

  1. The word “homosexual” was coined in which year? a. 545 B.C. d. 1869 b. 300 A.D. e. 1938 e. 1745 f. 1949 2. Who was the first gay or lesbian American elected to state political office In the United States? a. Roberta Achtenberg b. Barney Frank c. Harvey Milk d. Elaine Noble 3. Which president made it illegal for the American government to employ homosexuals? a. Washington b. Lincoln c. Eisenhower d. Reagan e. Clinton 4. When was the first American soldier dismissed from the armed forces for being gay? a. 1621 c. 1865 b. 1778 d. 1969

PROVIDED BY GAY, LESBIAN AND STRAIGHT TEACHERS NETWORK