The LGBT Civil Rights Movement 1960 - 1990:
Exploring History and Current Consequences

The Course

The LGBT Civil Rights Movement 2008 is an experiential learning program designed to give University of Wisconsin - Madison students a unique opportunity to engage with key players from the 1960s and 1970s nascent LGBT Civil Rights Movement to the present. Madison students will engage with leaders who formed and popularized the ideological foundations of the movement, pointing out that homosexuals constituted a small but significant percent of the population; that they were not mentally ill; that they didn't need to be spoken for by medical experts; and that they had a right not to be discriminated against. Today, it is hard to believe the level of official hostility faced by this intrepid group. This course will explore the animus, as well as the progress, made in the last half-century toward LGBT civil rights in the U.S. Participants in this course will meet with activists who were the first to "come out" publicly in the 1960s to break the media silence on homosexuality; meet those who organized and picketed at the first LGBT civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s; meet activists who advocated successfully with the American Psychiatric Association to "de-list" homosexuality as a mental illness; meet participants in the Stonewall Rebellion to resist police harassment against the New York LGBT community; meet founders of the first Gay Rights National Lobby group; and meet with activists who defended scores of homosexuals stripped of security clearances and fired from their government jobs in the 1950s and 1960s because of their sexual orientation. Participants will meet with activists who created the gay liberation movement of the early 1970s who argued that "coming out of the closet" was both a moral imperative and a key to personal integrity and psychological health in ways that were as shocking at the time as they are familiar today. The course will be a "rolling history seminar" as students hear first hand what it was like to confront social injustice during this era of our country's history. Students will also have the chance to visit historic sites of the movement in Washington D.C. and New York City. In touring these sites and interacting with the participants, University of Wisconsin-Madison students will not only have the opportunity to revisit this time in the nation's past, but also to be challenged through small group discussion and reflection to assess critically the ongoing struggle for equal rights in the 21st century and to consider ways in which they also as college students might be agents of change today.

This classroom and on-the-road course will be led by Professors Joseph Elder (Sociology/Languages and Cultures of Asia) and Susan Zaeske (Communication Arts), graduate student Amy Barber (Communication's Arts/Women's Studies), staff member and graduate student Scott Seyforth (University Housing and Educational Leadership and Policy Studies), and graduate student Eric Pritchard (English). This 3-credit class will fulfill a course requirement toward the LGBT Studies Certificate or the Women's Studies Certificate programs.

Course Philosophy

This course is an experiment; it is an attempt to combine academic learning with experiential learning, scholarly understanding with self-understanding. You will learn not only from texts but also from people many of whom will likely be different from you. Successful participants need an open mind, and an enthusiasm and receptivity to the ideas of others. In this class, you will learn a great deal about the gay liberation movement in the United States and resistance to gay equality. But this class is not just about others it is about you. You will learn about yourself, explore your connection to civil rights movements, and consider how you will incorporate movement values in your own life. Sometimes you will learn by traditional academic means reading books, writing papers. Just as often, you will learn through experiential processes meeting movement participants, performing community service work, visiting museums and historic sites, interacting with others on the bus or in formal group debriefings. This form of experiential and participatory education is an exciting and messy form of learning. Successful participants must be willing to continue to develop intellectual seriousness and critical thinking skills in addition to study and memorization skills. Through our on-going dialogues, we will work together to construct a better understanding of the process of struggles for human rights and social justice. We will be rigorous with ideas, and gentle with each other. Or, as Maxine Green puts it, we will become the friends of one another's minds.

Our purpose is to come to terms with the contentious history of gay civil rights in the United States; our field experience touring historic sites and meeting with activists means that we will not be stopping at malls and we will not be going to beaches, dances, or clubs. We will be working to understand how ideas about social justice have (and have not) changed in the country, and how we might contribute ourselves to work toward social justice. From similar past trips, we know our experiences will be intense but transformative as we look at ourselves and at our society. While we want students to enjoy themselves and to benefit personally and educationally from this field experience, this trip is not a typical summer get-away. In the communities we will visit, we will be ambassadors of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will be viewed as representatives of our school. Participants must be willing to play this important role to be a part of this course.

Course Application

Download an application to enroll in this course.

Grant Application

Download a grant application for this course.

Please email your electronically edited application to Scott Seyforth.

The Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights Movement is sponsored by: The LGBT Certificate Program; The Women's Studies Program; Pathways to Excellence; the LGBT Campus Center; University Housing; the Wisconsin Alumni Association; The Offices of the Dean of Students; the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning; the Vice Provost for Diversity and Climate; and the Office of the Chancellor.

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