Sexuality Studies, Gay Studies, and Lesbian Studies

Bernard Goldstein during one of his popular human sexuality lectures. Photograph published with Donovan Bess, “Sex Education Grows Up: Joys of Zoology 101,” San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Oct. 1971, 6.

“‘Human Sex Class’ Gay Film Causes Complaints to Reagan,” Phoenix, 28 Sept. 1972, 5. Courtesy of SFSU University Archives.

John P. De Cecco, “Lavender U A Gay First,” The Advocate, 27 Mar. 1974, 17.

Before there were gay, lesbian, queer, trans, or LGBTQ studies classes at SF State, there were sexuality studies classes, though they were not called that. In the early 1970s, one of the most popular courses at SF State was Bernard Goldstein’s biology class on “Human Sexuality.” The Phoenix first reported on the course in January 1970.[1] One year later, another article in The Phoenix mentioned that 470 students had enrolled in Goldstein’s class in the spring 1971 semester.[2] In September 1971, when the next iteration of the class enrolled 700 students, it began to attract mainstream media attention, generating three articles in the San Francisco Chronicle.[3] The Chronicle was simultaneously amused and fascinated by the fact that SF State students were interested in learning about sex. The course focused primarily on male/female sex, but in 1972 Goldstein came under fire when a Los Angeles Times article about his class yielded complaints to Governor Ronald Reagan about his use of an educational film about homosexuality. Fortunately for Goldstein, SF State President Hayakawa and other university administrators publicly defended the course and his use of the film.[4] And the external criticisms did not reduce the course’s popularity; a Chronicle article in February 1974 mentioned that 760 students had enrolled in “Human Sexuality” that semester.[5]

SF State’s earliest gay studies courses, which received much less attention by the mainstream media, were big news in the LGBTQ press. As noted in previous sections, students and faculty began calling for gay studies courses at SF State in 1969.[6] That year, English Professor Jim Brogan taught a gay-oriented course called “Problems in American Identity.” Across the United States it was common to use broad and ambiguous course titles for early gay studies courses because of student concerns about their transcripts and faculty concerns about enrolment.[7] As far as we have been able to determine, the college’s earliest openly-named gay studies course was a Spring 1971 sociology class, “Homosexuality and Gayness,” taught by John Irwin.[8] In Fall 1971, Jim Willeford told a student reporter that GLF planned to petition the administration to create a gay studies program.[9]

In Spring 1972, the college offered two gay studies courses in the Social Sciences Department: Lois Flynne’s “Homosexuality As A Social Issue” and Gearhart’s “The Rhetoric of Gay Liberation.” According to the Advocate, both were “concerned with the historic, ideological, social, and legal aspects of the Gay Movement, rather than the personal psychological aspects of individual homosexuals.” In this respect, the courses marked “a major change in the treatment of homosexuality by institutions of higher education,” since “most previous courses on homosexuality have been under psychology departments and have centered on debates as to whether or not homosexuality is abnormal.” Both classes were “filled to capacity with enrollments of over 100.” In a subsequent article about the course taught by Flynne (1934-2007), the Advocate described a recent class panel featuring “a well-known drag queen, a campus Gay Lib leader, an ex-clerk from the police department…, the owner of a gay restaurant, a ‘happy homosexual’ who works for an insurance company, three men from the local leather scene, and a successful attorney who described himself as strictly a Nixon-Reagan man.” One panelist noted that “such a class could not have been scheduled” two years earlier, and “surely this indicates some progress in gay liberation.”[10] When Flynne again offered the course in Fall 1972, more than fifty students enrolled. A review in the Advocate gave her an A+; one student described her approach as “brilliant” and “courageous.”[11] Flynne taught the course again in 1973, when there also were courses on “Lesbianism” in Women’s Studies and “The Homosexual and Bisexual in Contemporary Literature” in the English Department.[12]

John P. De Cecco (1925-2018), professor of psychology at SF State, advocate of LGBTQ studies, and longtime editor-in-chief of the Journal of Homosexuality from 1975 to 2009. Photograph courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.

In 1974, SF State psychology professor John P. De Cecco (1925-2017) helped launch a community-based project focused on LGBTQ-oriented education in San Francisco. De Cecco was one of seven founders of “Lavender University: A University for Gay Women and Gay Men.” At the time, he was serving as the faculty advisor of the regional Gay Students Coalition, whose founders included SF State student (and future longtime Advocate editor and writer) Mark Thompson (1952-2016). In an article published in The Advocate, De Cecco described Lavender University as “the first gay university in the world”; its goal was “to provide gay people an opportunity to share their knowledge, skill, and experience with other people.” Early courses focused on acting, art, counseling, dance, food, hiking, jogging, karate, literature, medicine, music, mysticism, opera, religion, self-defense, and yoga. In its first two-month session, 200 people enrolled.[13]

[1] Len Sellers, “A ‘Beautiful, Crazy’ Teacher,” Phoenix, 15 Jan. 1970, 10.

[2] Romero Cuadra, “Students Study Sexology,” Phoenix, 14 Jan. 1971, 8.

[3] Beverly Stephen, “Sex Education: Just Call it a “Family Life’ Course,” San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Sept. 1971, 24; Beverley Stephen, “Sex Education: A Framework of Responsibility,” San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Sept. 1971, 38; Donovan Bess, “Sex Education Grows Up: Joys of Zoology 101,” San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Oct. 1971, 6. See also Joe Konte, “Goldstein on Sex—A Crowd Pleaser,” Phoenix, 23 Sept. 1971, 1, 8; Calendar, “The Contact Series Presents: Bernard Goldstein on ‘The New Eroticism,’” Phoenix, 20 Apr. 1972, 5.