Course harms gay rights?

Following the politically-charged summer of gay rights issues, it seems the University of Michigan campus is gearing up for a similar fall semester. The school's most controversial class --"How to Be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation" -- is back in session.\nDavid Halperin, an openly gay professor of English who developed the course, has caused a national controversy with the class. Halperin's premise, according to the course description, is to explore phenomena that are specific to gay culture and to examine "the role that initiation plays in the formation of gay male identity." The state is in an uproar as some residents and conservative Christian groups like the American Family Association are alleging that the class takes advantage of young, naïve university students. \nAs an emerging metrosexual culture, highlighted by successful shows like "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," begins to redefine the behaviors of heterosexual men, no wonder traditionalists are worried about the mass conversion of straight men. But is that what Halperin is trying to achieve with his class? \n"The course is about how people who are already gay learn to craft an identity for themselves," Halperin told The Washington Times. From his comments on the class, "initiation" refers to the intricacies of "fitting in" experienced by gay men as they assume cultural norms as part of the gay community. Given the specific content of the course and its specific relation to gay life, it is reasonable to assume that Halperin may be limiting his pool of students to those who are gay.\nHalperin has argued repeatedly that gay and lesbian study has helped to raise social awareness and tolerance of homosexuality. Is he not hurting that goal by shutting out heterosexual students with a confusing and limiting title? Some heterosexuals may be interested in a sociological study of gay culture, but talk of "initiation" could be deterring them. \nAn instructional saying like "how to be gay" almost reads like admittance that homosexuals take on a learned lifestyle, acknowledging that homosexuality may be a matter of choice. That certainly is not what Halperin is intending but since it is a reasonable assumption, Halperin gives ironic firepower to groups like the AFA.\nThere's no doubt the course has serious academic merit and references a great deal of research that Halperin has conducted as an intellectual. His choice in title, however, may be contradicting what he acknowledges as the positive moral effect of his field of study -- promoting understanding and acceptance of homosexuals.