SAN FRANCSICO—A high school in San Francisco is ready to become the first public school in the nation to offer an LGBT studies course.

Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts has developed a curriculum for the LGBT studies course and plans to offer it in fall 2015 for their students. Lyndsey Schlax, a teacher at Ruth Asawa since 2008, will be teaching the course which will focus on several aspects of the LGBT community including LGBT current events, history, literature and the portrayal of the LGBT community in media.

San Francisco has been a hotspot for progress in the LGBT community dating back to at least the late 1970s when Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official after he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

Ruth Asawa’s LGBT studies course will incorporate national, international and local LGBT history into its curriculum. Human rights activist Cleve Jones, a pupil of Harvey Milk, has been assisting Schlax with the development of the course.

San Francisco’s Ruth Asawa high school’s student body has a significant number of students who identity as members of the LGBT community. Over a quarter of the students consider themselves as LGBT or questioning.

In a post on Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts’ Facebook page, Schlax is quoted as saying:

“I’m excited to teach the class because, in San Francisco, at SOTA, students should be learning these stories; they’re ‘their’ stories. With LGBT studies, our students will be learning about advocacy, being a good ally, and the history that shaped San Francisco and the LGBTQ community. And they’ll be doing it at a watershed moment – so much is changing in America, and the world, for LGBTQ individuals. In the next few weeks the Supreme Court will announce their decision about marriage equality, and I get to teach this history as its happening. It can’t get much more exciting than that!!!”

The quote is part of a video post in which Schlax discusses the LGBT studies course she is scheduled to teach in the coming weeks.