LGBTQ History, Culture and Movements

Catalog description

This course traces the history of LGBTQ people as well as struggles for recognition and acceptance both in the US and globally. With attention to how sexual identity intersects with race, class and gender, the course will examine how LGBTQ people can be placed within historical and political contexts. We will question how and why homosexuality became criminalized and the movements that led to decriminalization. We will spend a significant portion of time on the USA and Western Europe in the 19th and 20th century and the development of a contemporary LGBTQ movement. We will also look at how people of various gender identities and sexualities lived before and outside of European colonial context and explore how European colonization influenced changes in perception of people with gender variant identities as well as people outside of heteronormative sexual practices in their local communities.