AEJMC Resolution Two 2023
Inclusive History Resolution
News Release:
August 30, 2023
CONTACT:
Samantha Higgins, AEJMC Communications Director, 803-798-0271
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit scholarly organization with more than 2,000 members in about 40 countries who teach and research journalism, public relations, advertising, digital media, film, and media literacy. Founded in 1912, AEJMC is the oldest and largest alliance of communication educators and administrators at the college level. AEJMC’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to encourage the broadest possible range of communication research, to promote the implementation of a multicultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice, a better-informed public, and wider human understanding. For more information about AEJMC, please visit www.AEJMC.org.
Resolution Two:
Whereas, the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) in May 2023 issued a ruling banning educators from providing classroom instruction to students in grades 4-12 on sexual orientation or gender identity unless such instruction is expressly required by state academic standards; and
Whereas, such a ruling flattens the story of America’s long Civil Rights Movement that includes examining cultures, religions and societies that have embraced traditions of gender fluidity and homosexuality as meaningful categories of social identity and organization; and
Whereas, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an independent, nonprofit think tank, at least nine other states have passed laws censoring discussion of LGBTQ people or issues in school; and
Whereas, removing parts of a society’s history amounts to censorship; and
Whereas, the AEJMC has been a longstanding advocate for The First Amendment and free expression; and
Whereas, for more than twenty years, much of the AEJMC’s advocacy for sexual minorities has been led through the work of its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Queer (LGBTQ+) Interest Group along with organizations such as NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists; and
Whereas, diversity is one of the five core areas of the Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R) mission of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC); and
Whereas, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) has established “Diversity and Inclusiveness” as one of the eight standards by which all 119 accredited units have programs that empower those traditionally disenfranchised in the areas that include sexual orientation; and
Now, therefore, be it resolved that AEJMC joins the coalition of at least 49 organizations lead by the American History Association that call for the Florida Department of Education to reconsider its vague and destructive policy of censorship;
Be it further resolved that AEJMC supports in any way possible its members and journalism and mass communication units in any state where efforts are being made to censor discussions of LGBTQ people or issues in school; and
Be it further resolved that AEJMC encourages the teaching of accurate and inclusive histories of the U.S. and the world not only in the state of Florida at the K-12 schools, but in the entirety of the U.S. and at colleges and universities around the world.
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