This course will examine the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intertwine to shape the public discourse, law, and, ultimately, society. We will also explore issues related to the experiences of LGBT people of color and their relationship to the dominant LGBT community and movement, as well as racial justice movements. The latter issues relate to broader questions of intragroup and intramural discrimination, and the capacity of any one social movement to represent all people who share a trait, as exemplified by Black feminist critiques of white female control over feminist spaces and male dominance in the Black civil rights movement. We will approach these provocative issues from a comparative perspective. For instance, we will compare the stereotyping of Black male sexuality and queer Latinx sexuality. Pedagogical methods will include reading cases and legal scholarship, analyzing other literary texts, and viewing and critiquing film and television. Questions we will explore together include, but are not limited to, the following: • How do the media represent the sexualities and identities of people of color, BlaQueer people and of LGBT people of color? • How do these representations influence law? To what extent do interracial couplings reduce or reflect racial stereotypes? • Do legal analysis and public discourse regarding "gay rights" issues tend to assume and center white male subject and thus exclude other LGBT experiences? • Are BlaQueer and LGBT people of color best served by working within the dominant LGBT rights movement or Black and people of color movements, or should they develop their own identities, rubrics and movements? • How can heterosexuals and racial-sexual minorities find common ground and build coalitions? Grading: Letter Credits: Variable Offered: Irregularly
