California education officials have adopted new public school curriculum guidelines that give LGBT Americans a more prominent role in history and social science classes.
The State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to approve a teaching framework that will have second-graders learning about families with two moms or two dads.
After multiple delays, the changes are being made to comply with the nation's first law requiring schools to teach students about prominent gay people and LGBT rights milestones.
An outlined curriculum introduces the concepts in second grade with discussions about diverse families and again in fourth grade with lessons on California's role in the gay rights movement. The proposed outline also touches on the topics in the fifth and eighth grades and throughout high school.
The board reviewed the updates as part of a broader overhaul of California's history and social science curriculum.
In July 2011, California lawmakers passed the law adding LGBT people to the list of social and ethnic groups whose contributions to state and U.S. history schools must teach.
Its implementation was slowed by two failed attempts to overturn it, budget cuts and competing education priorities.
During four hours of public testimony, dozens of people criticized the way Muslims, Hindus and Jews are discussed in the framework. But no one spoke against the new treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
