THE LEGACY PROJECT: A LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY REDISCOVERS ITS HISTORY AND EDUCATES YOUTH THROUGH AN OUTDOOR EXHIBITION AND ONLINE RESOURCES

This paper introduces and examines The Legacy Project (TLP) a new resource about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) history. TLP commemorates LGBT contributions to world history and culture. Specifically it honors ethnically and racially diverse LGBT role models through The Legacy Walk (TLW), an outdoor museum comprised of historical biographies etched onto bronze plaques. There is also a complementary and extensive research-based website for worldwide use. The website (http://www.legacyprojectchicago.org/), includes the Legacy Project Education Initiative (LPEI) http://www.legacyprojectchicago.org/Education_Initiative.html, for educators, counselors, parents, students, and other professionals. LPEI hosts a teacher’s guide, lesson plans, a question bank, PowerPoints, a multimedia overview of LGBT history, and a visitors guide to TLP. Together TLP and LPEI represent a unique community response to a denied history, a response that turns the physical heart of a community into a shared space, both real and virtual, for honoring the multicultural and historical reality of Chicago’s LGBT community. We hope TLP can speak about our global connections and simultaneously address a global audience about LGBT exclusion. This effort can be both a resource and a model, one that demonstrates how community activism can generate community resources that build a shared sense of identity.

Initially, the paper describes TLW, the research-based website, and components of LPEI. LPEI resources are based on the theories of James Banks and Benjamin Bloom. Banks defined four stages of multicultural curriculum development while Bloom theorized about cognitive development along a continuum from literal understanding to complex inferential abilities. Then the paper addresses the ongoing development of a qualitative examination of TLP effectiveness via an evolving survey instrument. The goal will be to understand how participants make sense of various TLP experiences. Currently, three different types of student groups used differing sets of TLP resources. The students ranged from college students preparing to be teachers in an urban setting to high school students from both urban and rural areas. Feedback from two groups was collected in 2012, while two more groups will provide feedback in April 2013.

The survey reveals participants increased knowledge of, and developed positive attitudes about LGBT historical figures. Participants also generated strategies to counter bullying and name-calling, affirmed the need for greater legal protection and support for LGBT persons, and concluded that curricula and library resources should be inclusive of LGBT history. Despite the variety and size of the sample, the resultant data offers useful information about further development of TLP, TLW and LPEI.

The success of TLP can have implications across cultural and geographical boundaries by serving as a model or framework for other hybrid museums and educational efforts that seek to develop the inclusion of diverse groups. The unique multicultural focus of TLP can transform our understanding of LGBT history and LGBT contributions to history and culture. TLP has become part of the physical and educational fabric of Chicago, a development that can expand nationally and internationally. The paradigm shift from a culture of silence and discrimination to LGBT visibility through TLP provides a powerful opportunity to transform perceptions and attitudes for all cultures.