Introduction and other nitty gritty formalities.

Welcome everyone to my first blog posting for the “American Queer: An Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies”. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what the class entails, I have listed the course description from Carleton College’s Course Catalog below:

“This course focuses on the emergence and development of LGBT identities in the United States from World War II to the present moment. The course considers the consolidation of lesbian and gay identities before 1969, the Stonewall Rebellion, the divergence of lesbian and gay male subcultures in the 1970s, the AIDS crisis and sexualized lesbian feminisms of the 1980s, new queer activism and commercialization of lesbian and gay identity in the 1990s, and the importance and visibility of transgender identities in the new century. This course functions as a foundational interdisciplinary introduction to LGBT experience in the United States."

Beginning thoughts on the class are a mix of curiosity of the subject matter, thoughts on personal identity, excitement regarding the material and class discussions. I am also thrilled to be in one of Carleton College’s first classes offered in LGBT studies and experiences. Personally, I think that it’s about time for Carleton, which tends to pride itself on “diversity,” to take a good look at it’s curriculum and to consider whether or not it is recognizing and affirming diversity, including sexual diversity, in its academia.

As we have briefly discussed in class today, the public discussion surrounding the emergence of LGBT identities is fairly recent in the United States, with Queer Studies first developing into a set curriculum in the late 1980s. One may argue that the importance of even having Queer Studies, or LGBT studies is that the LGBT identities, as well as any other forms of identity, push thoughts of convention as to what is the "normative". Little is paid to it by way of history and for the most part, it remains a controversial topic for many. By academia beginning to approach it from its human aspect, divergent from the traditional “scientific” approach on sexuality, as a society, we are beginning to develop theories of identity that are apart from the apparent race and sex. As a society, we are beginning to question not what we initially see, but the intricacies of the human being and its many layers, including sexuality. Queer Studies, or LGBT studies, however one chooses to label the coursework, is important because for both homosexual and heterosexual, and everything in between, the coursework is considering what it means to be a human being in its most dynamic entity. It is pushing conventional thought to what one considers the natural to consider the possibility that it’s a relative state of being.