The College Fix

‘The politically coded language is a strong indication that this course is activism masquerading as science,’ one scholar said

Boston University is offering a class called “Queering Health” next year to teach students about “LGBTQ+ affirming therapies, healthcare, public policy, and legislation.” The course will fulfill general education requirements students need for graduation.

One expert from a medical and policy advocacy group told The College Fix that the course seeks to advance a political agenda rather than solve a real problem.

Students enrolled in the course will “learn about the psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity, intersectionality in LGBTQ+ communities, gender identity and sexual orientation development models, queer families and relationships, minority stress, hetero/cis-sexism, and other relevant topics,” according to the school’s website.

The course description also states that students will examine “strategies for advocacy, improving the healthcare experience of LGBT+ people, and addressing barriers to accessing healthcare from local, national, and global perspectives.”

Students will do so by applying a “constructively critical lens” to medical views of “sexual and gender diversity.”

Ian Kingsbury, research director at Do No Harm, told The College Fix via a media statement that the course is politicizing medicine.

“The politically coded language is a strong indication that this course is activism masquerading as science,” Kingsbury said.

He said that while those who identify as part of the gay and trans communities face many health challenges, this course aims to advance a specific agenda rather than solve the problem at hand.

“Rather than substantively addressing those challenges and potential solutions,” he said, “I suspect that this course peddles ideology and pseudoscience.”

“Unfortunately, when it comes to issues around gender or race, it’s very common that medical ‘experts’ privilege ideology over dispassionate pursuit of truth. Given the course description, I’d be shocked if this course was an exception,” Kingsbury said.

MORE: ‘Gender-affirming therapy’ is not beneficial, pediatrics group concludes

The course will be taught by Boston University Professor Shannon Peters, according to the course description. Her “teaching is informed by feminist theory, liberation psychology, and critical psychology,” according to the Society of Counseling Psychology.

Further, Peters’ research interests “include the impacts of systemic oppression, discrimination, and trauma on the mental health of marginalized individuals, LGBTQ+ healthcare and mental health, gender-based violence response and prevention, institutional corruption in psychiatry, and depathologizing normative distress.”

The Fix tried to contact Peters for comment on her course through voicemail and two emails in the last two weeks, but has received no response.

The Fix also reached out to Boston University media relations and the school’s Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program to clarify terms in the course description and ask why the course is being offered. Neither responded.

Some BU faculty members have publicly supported “queering” courses such as this, stating that they improve academic experiences for queer students.

In an article published by the American Physiological Society, three BU professors state that “the role of queering curricula and courses has been shown to be an important support for LGBTQ+-identified students.”

BU Professors Jesse Moreira-Bouchard, Sophie Godley, and Michele DeBiasse also state that “Openness and authenticity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer plus (LGBTQ+)-identified faculty in the health sciences positively affect students by helping them feel seen, welcomed, and included for both students who identify as LGBTQ+ and those who do not.”

“Queer approaches to curricula and the classroom may help improve awareness and ultimately improve the lives of LGBTQ+ students in those classes,” the professors state.

BU’s Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program is also offering courses titled “Thinking Queerly,” “Queer Theory,” “Feminist Inquiry,” and “Arts of Gender.”

MORE: Boston U students must take writing class with ‘social justice emphasis’

IMAGE: CampusMania/Youtube

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter