Among a list of hundreds of recommended (but not required) reading material were three LGBT-related books: Heather Has Two Mommies, Daddy’s Roommate, and Gloria Goes to Gay Pride.Īs school came back into session in the fall of 1992, Mary Cummins, school board president of District 24, which included the neighborhoods of Maspeth and Ridgewood, Queens, began publicly attacking the Children of the Rainbow curriculum for its LGBT content.
A section of the 443-page document focused on varying family structures, including three pages on families headed by same-sex parents. The Board of Education introduced this “Children of the Rainbow” guide into the public school system in November 1991. In 1989, following the racially-motivated murder of a Black man in the predominantly white neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a group of New York City teachers and administrators began developing a curriculum that would teach first graders respect for all of the city’s diverse communities.
