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INTRODUCTION TO
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER STUDIES
Instructor:
Yamissette M. Westerband, M.A., M.S.W. Email: yamiwest@ucla.edu Office: Rolfe 2214
Office Hours: Tuesday, 1:30PM-2:30PM and by appointment
Course Overview:
This course serves as an introduction to the study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender histories,
representations and cultures in the United States. We will read and discuss historical, cultural, sociological,
and theoretical accounts of queer lives (within and beyond the U.S.), supplementing our survey of the
academic literature with legal and medical documents, personal essays, visual media, and activist mission
statements from the last century.
Course Objectives:
Provide an introduction to understanding a history of the development of LGBT identities within a
U.S. context.
Engage with interventions that explore and problematize how gender, race, ethnicity, class, and
other categories influence understandings and experiences of LGBT communities and identities.
Develop an understanding of LGBT Studies as an academic discipline and field of scholarship.
Explore LGBT activist and community formations, including contemporary forms of organizing
and communications.
Identify homophobia and heterosexism and recognize the importance of each concept, as well as the
difference between them.
Begin a discussion of understandings of sexuality and identity within a transnational context.
Develop critical media literacy and the tools to become active consumers of advertising and popular
media
Course Requirements:
Class Participation (lecture + discussion): 20%
Discussion Presentations: 15%
Quizzes: 15%
Blog/Internet Search Part I: 10%
Blog/Internet Assignment Part II: 15%
OutFest Write-up: Extra-Credit, 5 points
Final Exam: 25%
COURSE WEBSITE Access through E-Campus: http://ecampusce.humnet.ucla.edu/ or my.ucla.edu
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
Attendance and Participation Active participation in this course is very important. Therefore, you are
expected to attend all lectures and all discussion sections and come to class prepared to engage with the
material. Attendance and participation will count for 20% of the final grade. Please be on time to class.
Students that are more than 10 minutes late, as well as students that leave class early without a written
excuse will be counted as absent for the day. The use of ipods, texting, laptops, etc, or the reading of
newspapers are prohibited in class. If you engage in any of these activities during class time, you will be
counted as absent for the day.
Group Presentations In each class meeting, a group of students will be responsible for presenting the
readings for that week to the other members of the course. Students will be assigned to groups during the
first week. Students will meet together, decide on the sort of presentation they think will be most effective,
and then make their presentation jointly. The 10 minute group presentations will count 15% of the grade.
Please note that if your group goes way beyond 10 minutes, you will be cut off, so please plan
accordingly.
Quizzes In this course there will be 2 short quizzes at the beginning of the lecture on the material
covered, in the readings and in class, since the last quiz, including readings for the day of the quiz. There
will be no make-ups. The quizzes will count towards 15% of the final grade. If you have done the readings
and attended class regularly, these quizzes will be very manageable.
Final Exam There will be a cumulative in-class final exam on the last day of class. The final exam will
count towards 25% of the total grade for the course.
Papers/Projects
Media/Internet LGBT Search, Part I: The first paper assignment in this course will be a three page write-up
involving an internet search of a blog or website relating to LGBT issues, community organizing and
activism. The blogs or websites may be within or outside of a U.S. context. The paper will consist of a
description of the website, as well as a discussion of how this site connects to themes and issues
discussed in the course. Further information will be provided on the course website. This paper will
count for 10% of the final grade.
Media/Internet LGBT Search, Part II: As a continuation of the blog/internet search, you will be asked to
conceptualize a blog, facebook or myspace page, or website that represents an identity, political issue,
debate, or discourse discussed in the course. For this assignment, you will be asked to bring to class a
description of the website, as visual representation of what it would look like (like a storyboard or collage),
as well as a 2 page write-up of how this site connects to themes and issues discussed in class. This
assignment will count towards 15% of the final grade. Students will present their storyboards in class
on the day it is due.
OutFest Paper : Students who are interested may attend one film screening from the OutFest Film Festival
and write a 2-3 page response to the film in connection to the course materials and readings. This will be an
opportunity to earn extra credit points for the course.
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COURSE SCHEDULE
Introductory Discussion
SCREEN: Before Stonewall (1984), dirs. John Scagliotti, Greta Schiller, and Robert Rosenberg
IN-CLASS QUIZ 1
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WEEK FOUR: GENDER AND REPRESENTATIONS OF SEXUALITY
Thursday, July 15: Drag, Camp, Butch, Femme: Presentation of Gender & Sexuality
Readings:
Mignon Moore, Lipstick and Timberlands
Jewelle Gomez
Julia Serano, Chapter from Whipping Girl
Richard Dyer, Its Being So Camp as Keeps Us Going
Chapter from Nobody Passes
SCREEN: From RUPAULS DRAG RACE, SEASON 2 or CLIP IF THESE WALLS COULD
TALK 2