The site’s pro-queer agenda involves spreading information, decreasing discrimination, and improving the lives of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals. As stated on the “About LGBSU” page, it “...seeks to promote education, awareness, and the elimination of discrimination and prejudice...” Through its Switchboard, webpage articles, educational panels, and gay-theme library, it promotes important and truthful information about queer life, which educates both straight and gay people in the community. Awareness is increased by LGBSU conferences, events, and activities, as well as the webpage itself, which reaches people worldwide. Another goal is to “... improve the quality of life for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.” This is evidenced by 1) its many weekly discussion groups (Women’s, Men’s, Religious, Bisexual, and People of Color Forums), which enhance emotional well-being, 2) social gatherings, which motivates interpersonal interaction and networks, 3) the roommate referral service, which improves living situations, and 4) the Gaytor Athletics, which enhances social lives as well as physical fitness for gay people.
The LGBSU webpage also uses certain kinds of arguments to support their agenda. In terms of arguments,the “General Information on Homosexuality” has 5 different subtopics. In the “Common Misconceptions and Beliefs about Lesbians and Gays” subtopic, it promotes education by breaking down 10 different stereotypes about gay people, such as, “Homosexuality is ‘unnatural’,” “Homosexuality is immoral,” and“Homosexuality is a mental illness.” These misconceptions are deconstructed by using arguments with psychological, sociological, anthropological, and religious perspectives. Through the “Who is Homosexual?” topic, it provides research data on what it means to be gay. It explains that “the term ‘homosexual’ is used to describe feelings or behavior and is used to describe individuals who have feelings of love, emotional attachment, or sexual attraction toward people of their own gender.”
Language can also shape reality and influence ideas.
The language throughout the webpage has a certain academic slant to it,
such as the phrases “socioeconomic barriers,” “heterosexual-homosexual
continuum,” and “experimental methodology.” This supports its agenda
in promoting education and decreasing prejudice against gay identity by
using an academic and intellectual approach. LGBSU also uses the
phrase “lesbigay” to combine and shorten the often-heard “lesbian, gay,
and bisexual” phrase. This shows that this organization is aware
of the current subdivisions in the queer community and is trying to be
inclusive of these 3 groups.
This campus-based webpage is supported by a critical perspective of homosexuality. It attempts to subvert the order perspective, which is the dominant way of thinking about homosexuality and bisexuality whereby heterosexuality is normal and healthy in society and anything other is abnormal and deviant. LGBSU, on the other hand, has the force of the critical viewpoint on human sexuality, which exposes society’s ranking of different sexual orientations on a hierarchical scale with heterosexuality at the top and “deviant” sexualities at the bottom. The list of “Common Misconceptions...” shows the dominant way of thinking about homosexual people. The status quo deems gay people as “unnatural,” “immoral,” and having “mental illness.” But this list also fights back with information against these stereotypical beliefs, which symbolizes their attempt to change the status quo, which also follows the critical perspective.
A psycho-sociological perspective underlies this webpage as well. This site uses research data from psychological and sociological resources. Much data on this LGBSU site comes from research data from Dr. Alfred Kinsey and Dr. Paul Gebhard. You can find statistics from the Kinsey Studies on the prevalence of homosexual behavior, such as “by adulthood, 46% of men and 26% of women have had sex with both men and women.” The website quote, “It is quite evident that when one speaks of homosexuality one is talking about something that involves millions, not thousands, of U.S. citizens...” comes from Dr. Gebhard, who succeeded Kinsey as head of the Institute for Sex Research. This site also utilizes the fact that the American Psychiatric Association voted in 1973 to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Under the misconceptions list there is mention of how the nature of gay relationships challenges rigid sex-role stereotypes, which shows a psychological viewpoint.
In addition, LGBSU has the social constructionist perspective under its wing. Essentialist and social constructionist arguments usually focus on the causes of homosexuality. This site tries to answer this question in their “How is Sexuality Determined?” subsection. It brings up how behavioral scientists have ruled out sexual orientation as being a matter of choice or a matter of “constitutional, glandular, or hormonal factors.” It also negates beliefs that homosexuality is a stage at which some people are “fixated,” and that homosexuality is caused by the “dynamics between mother and father or parents and child.” Instead, this website encourages the view that there is a whole range of sexualities, a “heterosexual-homosexual continuum,” not that sexuality is simply predetermined at birth according to your anatomical sex. It promotes the view that “homosexuality is a natural variation that develops from the same source as heterosexuality--our human capacity to love each other...” Thus, it seems to say that human sexuality is not dichotomous or simply essentialized due to anatomy, but that society has constructed these boxes and formulas that unduly confine and unfortunately oppress the multitudinous nature of sexuality.
Hence, the LGBSU webpage gathers its strengths from
the critical, psycho-sociolgoical, and social constructionist perspectives.
It also positions itself on the pro-queer side of the debate and possesses
strategies to educate people about homosexuality, eliminate prejudice and
discrimination against gay people, and alleviate the lives of lesbigay
individuals. Also being situated in the college arena, LGBSU should
be able to affect the people most critical to this debate--individuals
forming their identity and individuals seeking information about the world.