By Dr. Sue Rosser
The Bay Area is world-renowned for its open-mindedness and inclusiveness, and San Francisco State University mirrors that.
Though LGBTQ people often find their education disrupted by homophobia and transphobia elsewhere, at SF State they find an LGBTQ-affirming, intellectually stimulating place to learn and grow.
On-campus resources for queer students include Safe Zone, a network of volunteers trained to offer support for people of all gender and sexual identities; a Queer and Trans Resource Center; and student groups such as Queer Alliance and EROS (Educational and Referral Organization for Sexuality). Students can also get involved in the city’s vibrant queer life, earning course credit for internships at the GLBT Historical Society (where SF State faculty frequently serve on the board of directors), making films as part of the Queer Women of Color Media Project, serving as youth mentors with LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation and Information Center) and volunteering with local HIV/AIDS prevention programs and activist organizations.
SF State addresses LGBT issues in the classroom, as well. Undergraduate students can fulfill general education requirements by taking courses in queer and trans theory literature, history, film and culture. They can major in Women and Gender Studies (WGS) with a focus on sexuality and minor in LGBT or Sexuality Studies. At the graduate level, they can get an M.A. in Sexuality Studies or focus their queer research topics in WGS, Ethnic Studies or other units across campus.
In addition, students are actively involved with faculty research at a variety of centers and institutes on campus and benefit from exposure to cutting-edge ideas. This February, for instance, the Department of Women and Gender Studies will host a series of scholarly talks on the emerging field of “Crip Theory”—an area of academic study that brings together critical disability studies with queer studies, feminist theories and critical race studies.
Our goal is to send students on to their next endeavors with an awareness of the powerful ways in which gender, sexuality, race, ability, labor and justice intersect. SF State graduates take that awareness with them—along with their confidence, their energy and their commitment to inclusive community building—wherever they go.
Dr. Sue Rosser is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at San Francisco State University.
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