(WSIL) -- When schools return to session, there will be a new part of the curriculum.
Beginning July 1, Illinois public schools will be required to teach about LGBTQ history.
Governor JB Pritzker signed in August 2019. It requires students complete the history lessons before they graduate 8th grade.
Equality Illinois, the state鈥檚 largest LGBTQ civil rights advocacy organization, supported the bill and said the curriculum can have a 鈥減ositive effect on students鈥� self-image and make their peers more accepting.鈥�
Locally, Rainbow Cafe youth and volunteers spent two years working with legislators and other organizations to help pass the bill.
"What this bill does is actually recognize historic figures we're already learning about, right? Very important people Sally Ride, Bayard Rustin, and recognizing these folks as LGBTQ as their true identities," said Rainbow Cafe Board Chair Tara Bell.
Bell hopes the curriculum will provide some students with new role models taken from a historical perspective.
