Illinois Senate passes bill requiring LGBT history curriculum be taught in public schools

Illinois came one step closer this week to joining California on the list of states with a mandated LGBT curriculum for public schools.

Lawmakers in the Illinois Senate passed a pro-LGBT bill on Wednesday along a 34-18 vote. The legislation, Senate Bill 3249, now proceeds to the Illinois House, which is controlled by Democrats.

School boards would be granted leeway as to how much instructional time is allotted to the subject, The Associated Press reported.

“[The Bill] requires the study on the roles and contributions of LGBT people and the history of this state and the country,” State Sen. Heather Steans, a Democrat, said Wednesday while speaking in Springfield before her peers. “We’ve made a lot of changes based on a lot of input, which I appreciate, and it’s incorporating it just in the study of history like it does for many other populations in this state.”

“[This bill] requires every public elementary school and high school to include in its curriculum a unit of instruction studying the significant role of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals in society,” the bill’s sponsors wrote in a synopsis published on the Illinois General Assembly’s website.