History 424 - U.S. LGBTQ Rights Movement, 1945-2020

(Offered as HIST 424 and SWAG 424) The LGBTQ Rights Movement in the U.S. has revolutionized the lives, rights, and representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people in modern life. Despite its transformative impact, few people know much of anything about the people, organizations, or legal issues involved in the struggle. By studying LGBTQ history through primary source materials, students will develop a rich and nuanced historical view of pivotal moments, places, and people from the homophile movement of the 1950s to gay liberation of the 1970s to the anti-sodomy law and gay marriage battles of the 1990s to the transgender revolution of the 2000s. We will examine organizational records, movement magazines, legislative debates, oral histories and prominent published writings while also diving deeply into the LGBTQ press. We will address such topics as the closet, bullying, anti-gay laws, conversion therapy, the lavender scare, police harassment, religious campaigns, employment discrimination, and violence.  Students will learn to identify and work with an archive to craft a major, original research paper or digital exhibition or art installation on some aspect of the LGBTQ Rights Movement in the U.S. history. We will make extensive use of digitized source material while also visiting local archives such as the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College and the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center at UMass Amherst.

Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Professor Manion.

How to handle overenrollment: Seniority; and History or SWAGS majors

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Students will expect to read, write, work with primary sources, work in groups, and make public presentations.