LGBTQ History

Catalog description

This course surveys the origins of and major developments in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights movements across the last century. Informing the course will be the ways that different epistemological frameworks concerning human sexuality and gender have influenced the political strategies that have guided these social movements, how they have influenced the meaning and significance of the concept “sexual identity”, and how this concept can only be understood at its intersection with other identities. Special focus will be given to how major events throughout the 20th century informed the LBGTQ rights movements and the formation of LGBTQ communities and identities. These events include, but are not limited to, two World Wars, post WWII and the civil rights era, the Stonewall Riots, the AIDS epidemic, various shifts in scientific and mental health approaches to the study of sexuality, and the more recent civil rights gains such as overturning sodomy laws and the successes of the marriage equality movement. Offered: semester offered varies.