CU gay literature class a target of conservative group's ire

Brittany Anas, Daily Camera

Published February 12, 2007 at midnight

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BOULDER - During a literature class last week at the University of Colorado, Jesse Stommel's students filled up two chalkboards with definitions of what "queer" means to them.

The responses ranged from "gay" to one student associating the word with old British people eating crumpets.

A conservative group that is critical of what it sees as liberal bias in college classrooms gave the CU course - "Introduction to Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Literature" - a dishonorable mention in its recent "Dirty Dozen" project, in which the group surveyed class titles and syllabi nationwide.

The Young America's Foundation says the courses on its list are "bizarre."

Stommel and his students' response? "Thanks!"

"They called us bizarre," Stommel said. "I'm so proud. I'm a lover of words. What better compliment is there than to be called bizarre?"

Students in the CU course defend it, saying it challenges their minds and perceptions of identity with lively class discussions fueled by different viewpoints. Sure, a few said, the course may be skewed to the left, but that balances out others that tilt in the opposite direction.

The literature class didn't make it onto the conservative group's list of the 12 most egregious courses - which was topped by "The Phallus" at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

But it did join eight other schools on the dishonorable- mention list, including the University of California-Berkeley's "Sex Change City: Theorizing History in Genderqueer San Francisco" and Swarthmore College's "Peace Study in Action."

The syllabus for the lower-division elective at CU includes reading poetry from Walt Whitman, believed by some to be gay, to a book by modern novelist Virginia Woolf, who had an affair with a woman. The students also dissect films such as the gay cowboy hit Brokeback Mountain and Boys Don't Cry, a movie about a transgendered teenager.

The Washington, D.C.-based Young America's Foundation says there's no room in higher education for students to be studying topics such a gay literature.

These courses replace traditional scholarship and gobble up money and professors' time, says the group's spokesman, Jason Mattera.

Mattera points to a recent poll that shows Americans are more likely to come up with the names of characters on The Simpsons than freedoms protected by the First Amendment.

"There are a lot of soft courses," Mattera said. "Classes in American history go by the wayside."

He also says the Dirty Dozen courses are part of liberal educators' obsession with dividing people on the basis of race, sexuality and gender - their "holy trinity," as he calls it.

Mattera said the courses are filled with readings from leftist authors, and absent from class are opposing viewpoints, like an anti-gay marriage voice in a gay theory class.

"If you want to join the echo chamber, take these courses," he said.

Not so, says Stommel and his students.

"I'm not training them to be my automatons," Stommel said. "These students aren't an army of gay robots."

About 35 students are enrolled in the course, which consistently has a waiting list.

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