The following comes from a recent post on the Cardinal Newman Society website.

The University of San Diego, a Catholic institution, recently urged undergraduate students to register for a course called “Using Adolescent and Children’s Literature to Explore LGBTQ Issues” as an approved elective for minors in Education, Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Peace and Justice Studies.

Ironically, it turns out that students don’t want the course, and it was cancelled due to lack of enrollment.

The course was identified by Alumni for a Catholic USD, a group of University alumni who organized to oppose last spring’s campus “drag show” and other scandals at USD.

USD’s Center for Inclusion and Diversity has urged students to take the course, which is also offered for graduate students in education:

Looking for an interesting course this fall where you earn units for reading books you’d want to read anyway?

If so, consider taking:

Education 337/537

LGBTQ: Using Adolescent and Children’s Literature to Explore LGBTQ Issues

Fall 2012, Mondays, 4 p.m. – 6:50 p.m.

Approved elective for minor in Education, Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Peace & Justice Studies

This course needs four more students in order to go.

The university’s homosexual student organization PRIDE also advertised the course offering on its Facebook page.

Despite the urging, the course failed to entice enough student interest to make it viable leading to its cancellation, administrators told the Cardinal Newman Society.

The course description was as follows:

This course explores issues related to gender, sexual orientation and the heteronormativity in schools and society. Adolescent and children’s literature, poetry, film, and music relating to identity, majority culture influences, social movements and historical contexts will be used to investigate issues related to sexual orientation. What does it mean to be a gay/lesbian, bisexual, or transgender person? What are the roles and responsibilities of students, classroom teachers, and administrators in creating an atmosphere of acceptance and safety for all students? How can we promote peace and justice within and among groups? These and other questions will be addressed in order to promote knowledge and understanding of micro-cultures.

USD requested that students who are interested in the course should contact Dr. Donna Barnes of the Education Department.  Barnes did not respond to a call from The Cardinal Newman Society by the time of publication.

According to her curriculum vitae, Barnes has long been interested in LGBT issues and education. In 2006, she delivered presentations on “The Politics of GLBTQ Books for Elementary, High School, and University Students” to the Council of Teachers of English in Nashville and “Adolescent literature that Includes GLBTQ Characters” to the Gay/Straight Alliance at Rancho Bernardo High School. In 2003, she addressed the American Educational Research Association on “Queering Teacher Education: Addressing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (GLBTQ) Issues in Teacher Education.” And in 1993, she co-presented “Celebrating Diverse Families: Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Literature for Children and Adolescents” to the Greater San Diego Council of Teachers of English.

Charles LiMandri, an attorney and founder of Alumni for a Catholic USD, told the Cardinal Newman Society that this course marks the “unfortunate and tragic progression of the homosexualist agenda” that’s become “firmly entrenched with the administration, faculty and staff” at USD.

To read original posting, click here.