Coming Out & Sexual Identity Syllabus (original) (raw)

Who are we? And how do our sexuality, sexual identity, and coming out processes shape who we are and our relation to others? In this course, we will tackle these broad questions. In doing so, we will explore the role of the closet and the act of coming out in relation to sexual identity and in relation to shaping who we are. We will begin the course exploring foundational concepts and ideas related to the closet, coming out, and sexual identity. This exploration will involve understanding the homosexual/heterosexual binary as an organizing structure of U.S. society. We will also engage in an intersectional analysis to see how gender, race, age, class, age, space, place, religion, disability, sexualities, and other identities, categories, and processes complicate these matters. That is, we will see how other social categories and lived experiences challenge and complicate coming out processes and dominant notions of sexual identity. We will also see how migration, global perspectives, and other identity movements take up and challenge these ideas as well. A main goal of the course is to understand power, privilege, oppression, and inequality through this examination of coming out and sexual identity. Another goal is to see how sexuality, sexual identity, coming out, and the closet shape who we are, our experiences of social life, and how we relate to others.