OU will offer a minor in LGBTQ studies in the fall, showing OU’s efforts to reflect diversity and open discussion.

“I think it’s so important for us to learn about and respect people and all their diversity,” Valerie Palmer-Mehta, interim director of the women and gender studies program said. “This minor brings much needed visibility to this very important population.”

Palmer-Mehta guided the proposal for the minor through the Committee on Instruction and the University Committee on Undergraduate Instruction since Jo Reger, director of the women and gender studies program who spearheaded the minor, is away on sabbatical. The proposal then went through the university senate.

“I think this is an essential minor for the university, [particularly] in today’s world where conversations about same sex relationships and in particular marriage are a part of the culture,” Reger said in an email.

The minor took seven years to create, from idea to finished product. It requires 20 credits. The three core classes are Introduction to LGBTQ Studies, Queer Social Theory, and Field Experience in Women and Gender Studies. Eight credits are electives.

The minor works to teach about the lives of the people in the LGBTQ community and the academic contribution made by queer theory, which critiques the “biological views of sexual and sex identities,” Reger said.

Becca Reichenbach, president of OU’s Gay Straight Alliance and creative writing major in her senior year, said the minor will be good to pair with psychology and social work majors because people in the LGBTQ community look for counselors who are familiar with their concerns.

“It’s a good minor for anyone who is going to work with people,” Palmer-Mehta said.

The minor is also useful for raising awareness of the LGBTQ community, Reichenbach said.

“The goal is to show better representation, to open discussion more,” she said.

OU is not the first school to offer a program like this, Palmer-Mehta said.

“It’s important for OU to be on the cutting edge of offerings, so this is long overdue,” she said. “What you don’t learn about you don’t know and you might fear … the more we know about everything, the better we all are for it.”