About the course

In this 3-week Winter Term 2016 course, 24 students studied the experiences of people in the United States sometimes called "lesbian," "gay," "bisexual," "trans," "homosexual," "queer," and other terms and how and why those experiences changed over time.In particular, students explored the factors that affected their experiences, including laws and policies, the attitudes and actions of various types of authorities such as government officials and religious and medical leaders, popular culture, community development and differences among LGBTQ people, social movements, changing notions of identity, and individual families, co-workers, and peers. We paid some attention to the colonial period and mid-19th century, but focused primarily on events of the 20th century. We analyzed primary sources of various types - laws, court records, music, organizational records, letters, interviews, photographs, film -  and discussed the challenges of understanding LGBTQ history given limitations with sources and how the ways Americans thought about how identity, gender, and sexuality have changed over time. Leila Rupp's A Desired Past was one of the main secondary sources we used.

This website is the result of a project related to post-1950 LGBTQ history. Teresa LePors provided invaluable research assistance to students, and crucial technological support came from Barbara Z. Taylor, associate professor of Computing Sciences, and Dan Reis, Instructional Technologist. 

The course counts toward Elon's Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies minor. 

Learn more about:

• Elon's Winter Term 

• Elon's Winter Term Diversity theme

  • Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies at Elon 

• WGSS minor at Elon

• Elon's Gender and LGBTQIA Center

"The Ladder" October 1957 magazine cover from public domain