Proposal for a change in the Human Sexuality Studies Minor.

The Program in Human Sexuality Studies proposes to change its minor in Human Sexuality Studies in the following manner:

Proposal

The course HMSX 301, Introduction to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual studies is currently one of the possible electives of the minor. This course will become one of the core courses the students will have to choose from. As such it will be incorporated in the section “Socio-cultural aspects” of which the students who take the minor are required to choose two. (See the attached description of the minor for details.)

Rationale

The Program in Human Sexuality Studies proposes this change to increase the possibility that students who choose this minor, will encounter a course that introduces them to specific perspective of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual studies to the study of human sexuality. Currently, many courses incorporate issues pertaining to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual studies in the material, but none take on a specific Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual perspective. Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual studies not only put the lives of sexual minority individuals in the forefront, the perspective developed in these studies have made significant contributions to the understanding of diversity in sexuality studies as a whole, an understanding that would not have been achieved without the input from this particular field. Furthermore, this class, when offered more prominently in the Human Sexuality Studies Minor, can give those students who are new to the United States the possibility to learn about the lives and contributions of those who have helped make San Francisco the unique city that it today is. For these students, the class will significantly increase their potential to participate in local society, by increasing their exposure to the diversity that lives in the Bay Area. The Program decided for these reasons to give this course a more prominent position in the Minor in Human Sexuality Studies.

Gilbert Herdt

(Director of the Program in Human Sexuality Studies)

Niels Teunis

(Chair of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Human Sexuality Studies)