History UnErased's mission is putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place — the classroom.
Our mission is the next frontier in K-12 education and is working to sustain and advance American democracy. We do not focus on advocacy but on pragmatic, scalable solutions that address an educational gap. Our approach emphasizes solutions over ideology, encouraging unity through understanding, and accelerating change at the grassroots level.
Reach and Impact
The idea to found History UnErased began in one classroom in 2014. To date, we have trained K-12 educators in nearly 3,000 schools in 17 states who are now teaching our curriculum, reaching mainstream classrooms and impacting approximately 3,000,000 students annually.
Theory of Change
We believe LGBTQ visibility and representation in the history, civics, and social studies education all students receive will create classrooms, communities, and a country where all LGBTQ people live freely and with dignity — advancing the ideals of American democracy.
Deb Fowler (she/her), Founder and Executive Director
Deb's path to the education profession began with her service in the United States Army as a Korean linguist, before the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. (Her "Fraudulent Entry" discharge story is featured in Vincent Cianni’s award-winning book Gays in the Military). After teaching English at a private academy in South Korea, she returned to the United States in 2004 and spent the next decade teaching new immigrant and refugee students at a large, urban, truly diverse high school. During that time, she produced two documentary films, Hard Truth, Levity, and Hope (2011) and Through Gay Eyes (2013) to promote awareness of students and families who are ignored, marginalized, or excluded within the public school system.
"I didn't have the opportunity to serve our country in uniform, but by being a boots-on-the-ground classroom teacher and leading History UnErased, I found a way to be of service to the ideals of American democracy."
What Students Are Learning and How We Support Teachers
Our Intersections & Connections curriculum is LGBTQ-inclusive through an intersectional, contextualized approach to history, civics, and social studies education. Students are able to engage with relatable content as they approach their learning, whether it be race, gender, ethnicity, and/or nationality. This ensures dignity and equitable representation for all students in the story of "We the People." And our unique, whole-school partnership model ensures educators are well-supported in perpetuity.
Students Are at the Center of Everything We Do
Our curriculum broadens students' understanding of history and helps them make civics-based connections to the topics that surround them in today's world. This broader understanding of history is a powerful method to advance the ideals of American democracy, as students' learning takes root and spreads into their friendships, school culture, and a more welcoming society.
"This is just history! It happened. We have a right to learn about this." - Student
Teachers Are Critical to Our Mission
Classroom teachers impact students' lives, school culture, and the community at large in many ways. And in their classrooms, in addition to the content they teach, they are the arbiters of acceptance, belonging, and respect. We listen to what teachers need and incorporate their feedback into the ongoing refinement of our curriculum, which is critical to advancing our mission.
"Your curriculum is academically rigorous and inspiring and my students love it!" - Amber
"Like History UnErased, we want to make sure that the students and educators who come after us are not just better off, but are better than us, better at understanding, better at empathy, better at creating a world where all people belong." - Tina L. Haefner, National Council for the Social Studies President
Our successes, accomplishments, and professional affiliations speak volumes.
History UnErased's team members were the LGBTQ History Content Advisors for the most recent revision of the MA History and Social Sciences Curriculum Framework, and we have been a thought leader and partner with several states as they enacted policies mandating LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, including Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Since 2018, History UnErased has been partnered with the New York City Department of Education, the largest school district in the world, with ongoing funding from the New York City Council.
Partnerships and affiliations with esteemed national organizations and entities continue to grow, and include the Library of Congress, the National Council for the Social Studies, the Organization of American Historians, the National Park Service, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Colleges of Education across the country, and many historical societies.
Our partnerships with award-winning PBS filmmakers were grant-funded and they allowed us to create classroom materials for THE HEALER STONES OF KAPAEMAHU and to develop a classroom version of the Emmy-nominated documentary film CURED with complementing teaching materials.
Marty Meehan, president of the University of Massachusetts system and a former member of Congress (1993 - 2007), recently joined History UnErased's Board. During an interview with Marty about his tenure in Congress, Marty said he most wants his time in Congress to be remembered for his unwavering, consistent efforts to oppose and then repeal President Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
This coming November, Deb Fowler, Danny Roberts (his season on MTV's "Real World" drew attention to the controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy of the US military due to his on-screen relationship with a covert US Army captain and is our operations manager), Marty Meehan, and Patrick Murphy (who served in Congress from 2007 to 2011 and whose Murphy Amendment ultimately repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"), will share a stage at the National Council for the Social Studies conference and connect the poetic arc of the evolving policy on homosexuals serving in the US military with their lives, work, and the connection to History UnErased.
Example intro videos that bring primary sources to life and provide students a "hook" for our thematic units, case studies, and other types of academic instructional resources:
Our supporters are driving — and maximizing — impact!
Unrestricted operating funds support our safe, growth-engagement practices.*
"Lunch & Learn" sessions & donations provide scholarships** for K-12 schools and expand our reach.
Curriculum development grants allow us to add new "Best in Class" multimedia content and continue translating our curriculum into multiple languages.
Library of Congress
New York City Council
Acton Family Giving
Arcus Foundation
Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll)
New England Biolabs
Greater Lowell Community Foundation
JPMorgan Chase Bank
Bright Horizons
Richard & Nancy Donahue Foundation
Eastern Bank
Theodore Edson Parker Foundation
Saab Family Foundation
NASDAQ
Wipfli
Tito's
Yahoo!
Gannett
The Boston Foundation
Greater Lowell Health Alliance
TPS Eastern Region
*Safe, growth-engagement practices: why and how we ensure safety for our partner schools: Given the current cultural climate regarding LGBTQ-inclusive history education in many regions of the country, History UnErased does not market, advertise, or share any names of partner schools and districts (except New York City Public Schools because the New York City Council funds History UnErased's work there and it is public record). Our organization relies solely on word-of-mouth promotion and we must travel to state and local conferences and events interested in history, civics, and social studies education to present sessions and engage with educators and decision-makers.
**Why scholarships are vital: Given that History, Civics, and Social Studies were removed as a critical core discipline in 2001 (and therefore not tested as a matriculation requirement) there is little, or no, budgets for supplemental resources like ours. Corporate "Lunch & Learn" sessions and individual donors allow us to sustain an extremely low price point for schools and provide scholarships for districts. The partnership package is a one-time investment that provides teachers with the intentional training and ongoing support they need to integrate our comprehensive supplemental curriculum into their classrooms.
Thanks to this support, schools only pay a one-time investment of $2,500 for History Unerased's partnership program (or $1,000 per school for a multi-school contract).
Our In-Kind supporters are opening doors, contributing their skills, and creating new opportunities to advance our mission!
Clinton Global Initiative
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Momentum Communications Group
American Repertory Theater
VaynerMedia
Boston University
University of Massachusetts
Middlesex Community College
Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll)
MassBio
New-York Historical Society
University of Michigan
Digitas
Bronx Library Center
Scholarly Editing
Lowell National Historical Park
Boston Spirit Magazine
Vision to Reality Coaching
OUR CGI COMMITMENT TO ACTION
"The Past Is Always Present: Illuminating LGBTQ History," is a dynamic method of creating and sharing educational content that reaches students, educators, and communities nationwide with US history that would otherwise be missed or misunderstood. Research and development launched this September 2024, made possible through federal funding from the Library of Congress. We hope YOU will join our Commitment to Action and help us build a movement!
BACKGROUND
New and emerging efforts are underway to digitize LGBTQ primary sources alongside both the growing number of states mandating the teaching of LGBTQ-inclusive history and the exponentially greater number of states enacting laws and policies restricting LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. This Commitment to Action is History UnErased's new approach to creating and sharing LGBTQ-inclusive US history to reach communities that currently cannot partner with us, elevate state and local LGBTQ history, and connect those stories to a broader and more accurate reflection of America.
Our committed distribution partners (listed at the bottom of this page) will be sharing "The Past Is Always Present" with educators and constituencies in their networks nationwide, and in turn, those recipients will then share "The Past Is Always Present" within their educational contexts — directly serving nearly 2,000,000 lives and exponentially more lives indirectly!
Each year, as "The Past Is Always Present" educational products are developed into new editions to expand the representation of state and local archives, we have ongoing efforts to secure more distribution supporters and grow the number of lives directly served.
WE BELIEVE in "cathedral thinking" and that our Commitment to Action is a part of the bigger picture of sustaining and advancing American democracy for rising generations.
Serendipity
After submitting our grant proposal to the Library of Congress, we discovered the following primary source (from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) when creating the intro video for our case study about James Baldwin.
James Baldwin's handwritten notes on Sheraton Tacoma Hotel notepad [circa 1963]
Malcolm X's Question... to Be a Citizen of The nation? The world? The race?
A. to confront Religion / Race / Power
B. The question of Identity
C. Involving History
D. Identity of History being synonymous: being the Present
E. Attempting to make the Past / History
History UnErased is collaborating with Houses on the Moon Theater Company to develop and produce "The Past Is Always Present: Illuminating LGBTQ History."
Our distribution partners are key to our reach and impact and include the William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum, the Library of Congress, the National Council for the Social Studies, the Organization of American Historians, the New York Historical Society, and dozens more (current list below).
COMMITTED DISTRIBUTION PARTNERS
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Library of Congress
National Council for the Social Studies
New-York Historical Society
Out Youth Texas
Colorado LGBTQ History Project
Invisible Histories Project
International Schools
Scholarly Editing
Equality Pennsylvania
Maryland Center for History and Culture
Teach Plus
University of Texas Austin
American University
Waynesburg University
University of Massachusetts
Fordham University
Sonoma State University
Central Connecticut State University
Middlesex Community College
University of Michigan
Augusta University
University of Southern Maine
University of California Los Angeles
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Astrea Foundation
Alliance for a Healthier Generation
Highline Heritage Museum
Stonewall Columbus
Kaleidoscope Youth Center Ohio
OutWords
Queer Humboldt
Tranz Central Coast
Humboldt Pride
New York Public Library