Instructor: Dr. Valerie Lehr
Phone: 229-5677
Email: vlehr@stlawu.edu
Office hours: Tuesday 1:00 - 2:30 and by appt.
Over the past forty years, a significant gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered movement has fought to gain citizenship rights in the United States, as well as many other countries. In this course, we will explore this organizing in order to ask how and why sexuality is connected to citizenship, as well as to ask what GLBT activists need to understand and confront if the increased movement toward rights and recognition is to continue. Because the issue of gay marriage has been such a powerful force in US politics in recent years, we will spend considerable time exploring various perspectives on the politics of this issue within LGBT communities, as well as the reaction to this issue outside of LGBT communities.
Required Texts:
Eric Marcus, Making Gay History
Shane Phelan, Sexual Strangers
Richard Mohr, The Long Arc of Justice
Texts on Gay Marriage (You will each read one of these):
1. Michael Warner, The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the
Ethics of Queer Life, Harvard University Press. New Edition, 2000
2. Jonathan Rauch, Gay Marriage: Why It is Good for Gays, Good for Straights,
Good For America, Times Books, 2004
3. R. Claire Snyder, Gay Marriage and Democracy: Equality for All,
Rowman and Littlefield, 2006.
4. Valerie Lehr, Queer Family Values, Temple, 1999.
Readings Assignments:
| Section I | History: 1940-Present |
| 1/24 | Marcus, pp. 1-70 |
| 1/29 | Marcus, either Part III or Part IV. In class, we will pull the various timelines together. |
| 1/31 | Marcus, Part V |
| 2/5 | Marcus, either Part VI and Postscript or Part VII and Postscript. In class, we will watch The Times of Harvey Milk. Be on time--it is 88 minutes. |
| 2/7 | Finish your section of Marcus. In class, we will pull the various timelines together. |
| Section II | Gay Marriage: Should this Issue be Integral to LGBT Politics? |
| 2/12 | Activist Organization Website Response |
| 2/14 | Read the first 1/3 of your assigned book. Come to class with a 2 page summary of key points. |
| 2/19 | Read the next 1/3 of your assigned book. Come to class with a 2 page summary of key points. |
| 2/21 | Read the final 1/3 of your assigned book. Come to class with a 2 page summary of key points. |
| 2/26 | Come to class prepared to discuss your book. |
| 2/28 | No class: You must go to Out at the Movies. |
| 3/5 | Political Science analysis of the impact of gay marriage on US politics. Readings will be in ANGEL. |
| Section III | Broad Frameworks on Sexuality and Citizenship |
| 3/7 | Mohr, pp. 1-72. |
| 3/12 | Mohr, pp. 73-136. |
| 3/14 | Phelan, pp. 1-62. |
| 3/26 | Phelan, pp. 63-114. |
| 3/28 | Phelan, pp.115-161. |
| Section IV | What Next?: Issues that need to be considered and how they fit with Mohr and Phelan |
| 4/2 | Look at the NGLTF or the HRC web site. Read through one of these organizations discussion of an issue. Come to class prepared to discuss your issue. |
| 4/4 | Move from discussion of issues to defining research and presentation topics. |
| 4/9 | Work on projects. |
| 4/11 | Work on projects. |
| 4/16 | Bring the first draft of your project paper. |
| 4/18 | Project Presentations |
| 4/23 | Project Presentations |
| 4/25 | Project Presentations -- reflection on projects from 4/18 and 4/23 due. |
| 5/1 | Project Presentations |
| 5/3 | Conclusion -- reflection on projects from 4/25 and 5/1 due. |
| Due date | Assignment |
| 1/29 and 2/7 | Each of you will be given a theme to track for your assigned time period. You should come to class with a list of pages numbers and timeline with relevant events/people/ideas. You will meet with others in your group to prepare a report for the rest of the class. You must hand in your timeline. (Part of your response writing grade) |
| 2/12 | You will be assigned an activist organization. You must do an analysis of how they discuss gay marriage. (Part of response writing grade). |
| 2/14, 2/19 and 2/21 | Summary of key points from your text is due. You must bring two copies, one to turn in and one to work with with your group. If you do not have your summary, you will not be allowed to remain in class and you will be marked as absent. (Part of response writing grade). |
| 2/26 | Bring a 4-5 page paper in which you discuss your assigned text. Your goal here is not to highlight specific points, since you have already done that, but rather to reflect on the argument. You might address any of the following questions: How does the author's argument fit with traditions in gay and lesbian political organizing? What are the strengths of the author's argument? What are the weaknesses? Does the author believe that activists should be doing anything differently? If so, what? |
| 3/7 | Response to Out at the Movies due. (Part of response writing grade). |
| 3/26 | Paper on Phelan and Mohr will be assigned. This is due in class on 4/4. |
| 4/16-5/1 | Project research and paper -- This will be based on a topic of your choice. A first draft is due on 4/16, with the revised final draft due on 4/23. You must also do an oral presentation on your topic. |
| 4/25 and 5/3 | On each of these two days, you must submit a brief reflection on the project presentations that you have heard on the previous two days. (Part of response writing grade) |
| 5/11 | Take-home final due at 11:30. |
Grade Distribution:
1) Response writing: These responses must be turned in on the day for which they are assigned. If they are not, you will receive a zero. I will generally grade them using a check+, check, check-, zero system. These are collectively worth 20% of your grade. If you receive 3 or more zeros, you will receive a zero for this portion of your grade.
2) Paper on your assigned text on gay marriage: This is 15% of your grade.
3) Midterm paper: This is 15% of your grade.
4) Project paper and formal presentation: These are 25% of your grade.
5) Take-home final: This is 15% of your grade.
6) Participation: You will be asked frequently to report of texts or portions of texts that you have read. You should be prepared to do so and you should be able to do so coherently and comprehensively. This is a primary portion of your participation grade, though this grade will also include participation in more informal conversation. This is 10% of your final grade.