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Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBTQ studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoric, Asexuality, Aromanticism, queer, questioning, and intersex people and LGBTQ culture. lists these names and similar acronyms at various academic departments.
Originally centered on LGBT history and literary theory, the field has expanded to include the academic study of issues raised in archaeology, sociology, psychiatry, anthropology, the history of science, philosophy, psychology, sexology, political science, ethics, communication, and other fields by an examination of the identity, lives, history, and perception of being queer.
Queer studies is not the same as queer theory, which is an analytical viewpoint within queer studies (centered on literary study and philosophy) that challenges the existence of "socially constructed" categories of sexual identity.
Many topics within queer studies focus on the open possibilities beyond heteronormativity; detailing texts, cultural artifacts produced by queer individuals, as well as expanding beyond into how queer interacts with daily life.
Though a new discipline, a growing number of colleges have begun offering academic programs on the expansive topics of queer. This has been a trend in higher education since the early 90's.
The first undergraduate course in the United States on LGBTQ studies was taught at the University of California, Berkeley in the spring of 1970.Toni McNaron, Poisoned Ivy: Lesbian and Gay Academics Confronting Homophobia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. It was followed by similar courses in the fall of 1970 at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL).
According to Harvard University, the City University of New York began the first university program in gay and lesbian studies in 1986. The City College of San Francisco claims to be the "First Queer Studies Department in the U.S.", with English instructor Dan Allen developing one of the first gay literature courses in the country in the fall of 1972, and the college establishing what it calls "the first Gay and Lesbian Studies Department in the United States" in 1989. Then-department chair Jonathan David Katz was the first tenured faculty in queer studies in the country. Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York were among the first to offer a full-fledged major in LGBTQ Studies in the late 1990s. These colleges currently have one of the few tenure lines in a stand-alone LGBT Studies program, while many such programs are being absorbed into Women and Gender Studies programs.
Historians John Boswell and Martin Duberman made Yale University a notable center of lesbian and gay studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Each historian published several books on gay history; Boswell held three biennial conferences on the subject at the university, and Duberman sought to establish a center for lesbian and gay studies there in 1985. However, Boswell died in 1994, and in 1991, Duberman left for the City University of New York, where he founded its Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies. A 1993 alumnus gift evolved into the faculty committee-administered Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies, which developed a listing of courses relevant to lesbian and gay studies called the "Pink Book" and established a small lending library named for Boswell. The committee began to oversee a series of one-year visiting professorships in 1994.
Bryant's campaign caught the attention of California state Senator John Briggs, who eagerly expressed his interest in expanding the Save Our Children campaign to his state, which initially took the form of Proposition 6 or the Briggs Initiative. This initiative allowed for employment discrimination against those who engaged in homosexual activity in public, or publicly encouraged or promoted homosexual activity towards co-workers and their students. Unlike Bryant's movement, which focused solely on gay teachers, Briggs' campaign could be applied to homosexual and heterosexual people alike since his initiative discriminated against the discussion of homosexual behavior, which anyone could do. Briggs' initiative was ultimately denied in 1978.
With gender, ethnic, and race-related studies still relatively new, Yale Provost Alison Richard said that gay and lesbian studies was too narrow a specialty for a program in perpetuity, indicating a wish to compromise on some of the conditions Kramer had asserted. Negotiations broke down as Kramer, frustrated by what he perceived to be "homophobic" resistance, condemned the university in a front-page story in The New York Times. According to Kramer, he subsequently received letters from more than 100 institutions of higher learning "begging me to consider them."
In 2001, Yale accepted a $1 million grant from his older brother, money manager Arthur Kramer, to establish the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies. The five-year program aimed to bring in visiting faculty, host conferences and lectures, and coordinate academic endeavors in lesbian and gay studies. Jonathan David Katz assumed the role of executive coordinator in 2002; in 2003, he commented that while women's studies or African American studies have been embraced by American universities, lesbian and gay studies have not. He blamed institutionalized fear of alienating alumni of private universities, or legislators who fund public ones. The five-year program ended in 2006.
In June 2009, Harvard University announced that it would establish an endowed chair in LGBT studies. Believing the post to be "the first professorship of its kind in the country," Harvard President Drew G. Faust called it "an important milestone." Funded by a $1.5 million gift from the members and supporters of the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus, the F. O. Matthiessen Visiting Professorship of Gender and Sexuality is named for a mid-20th century gay Harvard American studies scholar and literary critic who chaired the undergraduate program in history and literature. Harvard Board of Overseers member Mitchell L. Adams said, "This is an extraordinary moment in Harvard's history and in the history of this rapidly emerging field ... And because of Harvard's leadership in academia and the world, this gift will foster continued progress toward a more inclusive society."
While queer studies initially emerged in the North American and, to a lesser extent, European academy and mostly relates to Western contexts, it recently has also developed in other parts of the world. For instance, since the 2000s there has been an emergent field of Queer African Studies, with leading scholars such as Stella Nyanzi (Uganda), Keguro Macharia (Kenya), Zethu Matebeni (South Africa), S.N. Nyeck (Cameroon), Kwame E. Otu (Ghana), and Gibson Ncube (Zimbabwe) contributing to the development of this field. Their work critiques the eurocentric orientation of Western queer studies and examines the longstanding traditions of sexual and gender diversity, ambiguity, and fluidity in African cultures and societies.
/a>). In its Faculty of Law, ranked amongst the best in the country, Marcelo Maciel Ramos established in 2014 Diverso UFMG - Legal Division of Gender and Sexual Diversity ( www.diversoufmg.com) and a study group on Gender, Sexuality and Law, which is now led also by Pedro Nicoli. Diverso UFMG organizes since 2016 the Congress of Gender and Sexual Diversity (Congresso de Diversidade Sexual e de Gênero: ) that has become one of the biggest and most important academic events on Women and LGBT studies in Brazil. At the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Marco Aurélio Máximo Prado has been running since 2007 Nuh UFMG (Human Rights and LGBT Citizenship Division), a successful initiative on LGBT studies. Scholars who focus on queer studies at other universities in Brazil include Luiz Mott and Moisés Lino e Silva, among others who write on LGBT rights in Brazil and on LGBT history in Brazil.
"Homosexual Health Social Sciences" was developed to be interdisciplinary to cover the social sciences, humanities, and public health. Interdependence on different academic focuses was achieved in the curriculum by covering "Theories of homosexuality and Chinese reality", "homosexual sub-culture" and "Men seeking men (MSM) intervention in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention," in addition to reading literature with gay characters and themes and taking field trips to a gay bar. The article goes on to describe the attendance of this course and its significance by clarifying that the official registration in the class was low, with only one student in 2003 and two in 2004. Officially registered students were not the only people attending the classes, though, because the course was open to the general public. The average attendance in 2003 was 89.9 and rose to 114 in 2004.
Gao and Gu also reveal the precautions taken by the creators of the course to shelter the new class from harsh criticism. The authors depict the creators' fear of attracting too much negative attention from the Chinese media could adversely affect the course and its continuation. Most coverage of this course at Fudan University was delivered in English at the beginning. This phenomenon was explained by one journalist from China Radio International—Homosexuality is very sensitive issue in Chinese culture so by discussing it in English, it is distanced from the conservative Chinese culture. Fudan University led Chinese academia to develop a more comprehensive curriculum that will educate future health care professionals on the needs of more Chinese citizens.
In recent years, homophobic curriculum laws have continued to be present in schools across the US. In 2017, studies showed that 20 states had implemented anti-gay laws affecting school curriculums. These included laws that made it mandatory for teachers to educate from an anti-gay standpoint and ones that gave teachers the freedom to choose between using these homophobic curriculums or not including sex education in their curriculum at all. Many states also have curriculum laws that require teachers to educate their students from the viewpoint that abstinence before marriage is the sole option for safe prevention against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. With an emphasis on abstinence before marriage, this often excludes same-sex couples due to their absence from the definition of marriage in their state.
PEN America reports that Maia Kokabe's Gender Queer: A Memoir is the most banned title, with bans in 30 districts. Kokabe's memoir discusses their experience growing up feeling outside of the gender binary and not feeling like they fit into their body. It follows parts of Kokabe's childhood into their early adult years and experiences coming to terms with their gender identity and coming out. Gender Queer was met with a contrast of responses, many expressing gratitude and love for the sharing of their story, as it was written with an audience of family, friends, and those that can identify and sympathize with Kokabe in mind. Others claimed the book is too sexually explicit, specifically in its illustrations which include that of the human body, but no sex scenes. In an interview with NPR, Kokabe discusses how they felt they included the appropriate amount of illustrations to tell their story accurately and due to their importance in the representation of their journey with gender and sexuality. They also express their stance that they illustrated the book in a much less explicit manner than it could have been had it been written by a different author.
Attempts to educate and fight against these book bans have been taking place across the country. Free libraries, library pop-ups, and book giveaways have been go-to methods for grassroots organizations and activists to make banned books accessible. Little Free Library members install wooden curbside mini-library boxes and fill them with books of their choice. These books are available to take for free for any passers by. In 2022, the organization reported 140,000 Little Free Libraries had been installed across the nation, with 87% of their owners stating that they make banned books available in their boxes. Bookstore owners and booksellers have been taking actions into their own hands and giving their books away, covering some costs out of their own pocket and gaining donations both in person and through social media. Authors and publishers have started taking similar actions, carrying around their own books, handing them out, and donating to free libraries. While in most cases a book ban hurts the book's sale rate and the author's exposure, some bans result in higher publicity and recognition, like in the case of All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson, now a bestseller. The publicity of its ban put it on the radar of many readers who would otherwise have never found it, and it is now in its 10th printing. In an increasingly accessible digital age, digital libraries and book websites are also making banned books more accessible. Free library apps, like the Brooklyn Public Library, allow digital library cards and access to readers which can be used from any device anywhere in the country.
There has been an increase in protests as students and parents across the country respond negatively to the bill, as some assert that the broad language is meant to specifically target the LGBTQ community. As a result, some public schools have punished and suspended students for staging demonstrations on campus. Other educators have faced backlash for showing support for the LGBTQ community, such as discussions about gender identity in class and showing movies or documentaries that showed openly gay characters. Some have been censored, suspended, and even fired. Equality Florida, an LGBTQ group that is currently suing the DeSantis administration for the proposed law, argues that it marks an "extraordinary government intrusion on the free speech and equal protection rights" in public schools.
The discourse surrounding this legislation also resulted in backlash from The Walt Disney Co. employees, who shared their disappointment with the company on social media for not publicly denouncing the bill. According to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Disney leaders were opposed to the bill "from the outset, but we chose not to take a public position on it because we thought we could be more effective working behind-the-scenes, engaging directly with lawmakers — on both sides of the aisle." He has stated that Disney has pledged 5 million dollars to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in support of protecting LGBTQ rights, but the HRC has declined to accept the money until they further their commitment to supporting the LGBTQ community.
On February 1, 2023, College Board, the organization that is responsible for creating standardized tests such as the SAT and AP, revealed the changes that it made to its African American studies course. This came after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican party condemned the class and banned the original version from Florida schools. The new version is without names of major events in contemporary history, mention of the Black Lives Matter movement, black feminism, black queer theory, critical race theory, or intersectionality. According to a College Board representative, however, "To be clear, no states or districts have seen the official framework that will be released on February 1, much less provided feedback on it." However, College Board has historically given in to many conservative leaders' demands in other courses, such as AP United States History, where readings would focus less on colonial settlers' harm towards indigenous people and more on founding fathers and their religious influences.
Since 2021, 42 different versions of the "Don't Say Gay" bill have been proposed in 22 state legislatures, including Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, and many others. All of these bills similarly prohibit discussion and inclusion of LGBTQ related topics. These bills are also associated with many other bans that have taken place in Florida and many other states, such as bans on gender-affirming medical care, pride flags in public places, drag shows, and others.
While this was originally used as a term to describe the specific type of oppression that African American women face, it has grown relevant to many other groups of people. According to them, "The theory of 'intersectionality' — which posits that individuals simultaneously experience oppression based on multiple social categorizations, and that this oppression is multiplicative — has made queer studies more inclusive." The idea of intersectionality came to be after second-wave feminism, which is thought to only benefit straight, white, middle-class women. Third-wave feminism became the springboard for intersectionality when there became an awareness that women faced different types of oppression based on their race, gender, and class. Kimberlé Crenshaw maintains the fact that the idea of intersectionality and true feminism is lost if black women continue to be overshadowed by their white counterparts. The idea of intersectionality began when discussing feminism but has become relevant in many other subjects, such as LGBTQ discrimination.
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