U of T program offers courses in a variety of topics

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Situated within the University of Toronto's University College exists one of the most unique educational centres in all of Canada.

The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity is home to a program that explores the varied aspects of sexuality in relation to a variety of fields and subjects.

Launched 10 years ago, what began as a small undergraduate program has flourished, and today has expanded to include minor and major programs, as well as the newly approved specialist program, said centre director David Rayside.

"We were the first in the country to have a major in sexuality or sexual diversity and we're the first to have a specialist program," he said.

Rayside, who has been involved with the centre since its inception, said the idea for the sexual diversity program came from a handful of faculty members and graduate students who thought sexual diversity studies was an important area that the curriculum didn't address.

The program is available to all students in the University of Toronto's faculty of arts and science, and Rayside said those enrolled are able to take a variety of subjects including history, political science, law and women's studies.

You may wonder how these subjects tie into sexual diversity.

Rayside, who teaches sexual diversity in politics, explained a few of the topics he broaches in his class.

"I deal with the emergence of activist movements in a variety of countries that deal with gay and lesbian issues for example, or transgender issues, and I deal with how much impact they've had in public policy and law and so on," he said.

In the English department, their course, he said, would include 'queer' writing and literature, and in sociology they may broach topics like AIDS and marriage.

Rayside said although many of the courses content contain gay studies, the program is not geared specifically to gays, lesbians and transgenders, but to a myriad of students who take these courses for different reasons.

"Some of them are themselves queer and they want to find out more about it analytically, or they recognize there's a lot to learn about this in an academic way; some have friends or relatives who are (gay) and for some it's just an important cultural and political phenomenon," he said.

Sexual diversity program instructors hail from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and departments so students can choose from an array of courses. Scott Rayter, a member of the English department, teaches two courses in the sexual diversity program, history and perspectives on sexuality and queerly Canadian.

While the queerly Canadian courses focus on queer contemporary literature, film and visual arts, history and perspectives gives students a unique look at sexual issues throughout history.

"For example, in ancient Athens, 300 B.C., what was deemed acceptable kinds of sex acts in certain times and places, how it was regulated via church, state." Rayter said. "Sexual relations between men weren't deemed abhorrent nor were they indicative of any kind of sexual orientation."

Rayter also touches upon things like sex and slavery, marriage and rape laws and colonialism and sexuality. He said each time period reveals interesting views on sex throughout different places in history.

"Looking at the kinds of things that were said about sex, banned about sex, represented about sex tells us quite a bit about that particular culture," Rayter said.

"The ways in which acts themselves are a-historical, sex has been always been happening but the meanings and consequences how they are interpreted, understood and accepted in various times and places changed radically."

Rayter said sexual diversity can relate to many subjects in several different ways. In many cases, it fits students' academic requirements but also they've tailored the sexual diversity program courses to complement what students are already studying.

So students who are doing a degree in women's studies with a minor in sexual diversity program, for example, are going to be taking courses that really complement each other instead of having to learn the same things over and over again, Rayter said.

"Some of things I talk about like rape and colonialism, that's also been topics in women's studies for a long time, so with this program, we wanted to do something that was complementary but also talk about other things that weren't being addressed elsewhere," he said.

Rayter said having a degree in sexual diversity studies can be applied in many ways because the issue of sexuality and sexual diversity crosses all fields of work. Many sexual diversity program graduates go on to work in careers spanning from the media and law, to social work and education.

"When it comes to sexuality, these people have the critical tools in the workplace to help develop policies, promote understanding and know how diversity can make for a better workplace," Rayter said.

Visit www.utoronto.ca/sexualdiversity/ for more information on the sexual diversity program.