Join us for an information session about the Spring 2024 Short-Term Abroad Program (STAP) on Latin American Sexual Identities (PSYC3199, WGSS3170) with Professor Stephen Forssell.

This course with Dr. Stephen Forssell, the founder and director of the LGBT Health Policy & Practice Graduate Certificate Program, takes an intersectional approach to examining sexual orientation and sexual identity with special attention paid to the Latinx experience of same-sex sexuality. We will explore social science research related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) identities, as well as non-LGBTQ identified same-sex sexuality in both the U.S. and in Latin America. Informed by the cultural context of two cities central to gay life in Mexico, and enhanced through academic readings, cultural excursions and community engagement, this course will explore unique challenges and triumphs of individual and groups navigating the diverse and multiple LGBTQ identities and lifestyles that co-exist within contemporary Mexican urban society. Students will explore topics such as LGBTQ identity development, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ transnational interface (specifically, the co-mingling of Mexican and American LGBT Communities), as well as a community’s response to the HIV-AIDS and Covid-19 pandemics.

Our backdrops for exploration will be Mexico City (CDMX) and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. CDMX is home to one of most vibrant and active gay and lesbian cultures in Latin America. La Zona Rosa is the center of queer life in CDMX, home to many nightclubs, shops, and restaurants that cater to and support the LGBTQ community. Puerto Vallarta has developed into Mexico’s premiere gay resort town, a satellite gay space for its big sister cities of Mexico City and Guadalajara, much as Fire Island is to New York City.