For the past 18 years, Prof. Thomas King (ENG) has seen the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community at Brandeis grow and become more active on campus through various programming and student resources. And when the students began to demand an academic program that "focused on their own culture," he supported them. Among other faculty, King became an influential force behind the recently created minor in Sexuality and Queer Studies. 

Since its formation, the University has always been an open-minded, safe place for the LGBTQ community, according to King. Organizations such as Triskelion and the LGBTQ Alliance have made an impact on the social landscape of the school, allowing for future advancements in the LGBTQ initiative. 
 
However, the students were still not satisfied. Ten years ago, they began rallying for more "queer visibility," as King says, through acceptance and activism on campus. "They formed an initiative with faculty, staff and the administration to bring about a number of improvements to campus life for students who identify as queer, meaning who understood themselves as having a sexuality that was other than heteronormativity or a gender identity, expression other than the norms of male and female. They basically began to agitate to bring around improvements on campus," King said. 
 
A written nondiscrimination policy and housing and bathroom facility improvements were just a few of the results that came from the initiative. Jessamine Beal works as the program coordinator for sexuality and gender diversity, one of the staff positions which was ultimately created to promote LGBTQ activism on campus. 
Over the past few years, the initiative continued. Elaine Wong, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences, met with other faculty to discuss LGBTQ resources and services offered at Brandeis. 
 
Their overall consensus was that "the students, primarily in Triskelion, had done a great job in advocating for student needs but that students shouldn't have to be responsible for providing all of the services and resources needed by the LGBTQ community," Wong said. 
 
However, more faculty support was needed to meet what the LGBTQ community demanded from Brandeis. More than just acceptance, Brandeis needed a distinct academic program "to provide students with the opportunity to study and examine sexuality and gender studies in the classroom," Wong said.
 
Previously, King had taught cluster courses, which are interrelated classes, on sexuality and society. However, these courses ultimately stopped being offered and the options for studying sexuality were scarce. 
 
The idea of having an interdisciplinary field of study combining English, the social sciences and the arts once again became popular. King is one of a handful of faculty focusing on and researching sexuality and queer studies at Brandeis who worked to create the new Sexuality and Queer Studies minor. 
 
After deciding some sort of interdisciplinary field of study was now a necessity, it became a collaborative effort between students, faculty and staff to create the minor. 
 
"Ultimately, what really became the motor, or the engine, for bringing Sexuality and Queer Studies to campus was the strong student desire," King said. 
 
Despite the support for the program, the LGBTQ initiative still faced many obstacles. One main issue was finding faculty to staff the program. The problem was not a lack of knowledge on the subject but time constraints. As a research institution, Brandeis has access to many professors, all willing to share their knowledge but many of whom have prior commitments. Another question that arose was where to house the substantial program. Many agreed that it would fit best under Women's and Gender Studies, but they did not want that program to lose its distinct feminine approach to society and the understanding of women's issues.
 
Ten years later, the timing was finally right. After years of perfecting the details, the objective of the new minor was released: "The opportunity to examine socially and historically specific experiences, meanings, and representations of sexuality and gender and the centrality of sexuality and gender to personal and collective identities in modernity."
 
And now, this academic year, the first students are in the process of exploring and declaring Sexuality and Queer Studies minors. SQS is already able to offer unique opportunities to the student body. Classes span across many academic fields including English, anthropology and history. Grace Leslie, a visiting fellow in African and Afro-American Studies, is teaching a course on the history of civil rights, which focuses on its relation to gender and sexuality. 
 
Shannon Hunt, part of the staff in the Women's and Gender Studies program, is planning an event for Oct. 17 at which Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home and Dykes to Watch Out For, will return to Brandeis and give the Roosevelt Lecture, a yearly speech created to honor Eleanor Roosevelt's commitment to Brandeis.
 
Shannon Ingram '13, a Sociology and Hispanic Studies double major who was one of the first students to declare the minor, first heard of the minor at the Brandeis drag show last year, where King introduced it as a possible minor and asked for support.
 
Ingram describes sexuality and queer studies as "a study of the history of both sexuality and the LGBTQ spectrum, and insight into the mindset of the culture." This semester, Ingram is enrolled in an independent study on "The Hook-Up Culture," which involves interviewing and studying the relationship habits of 20 college-aged women. Ingram also notes that one of the highlights of the program is King himself, who she describes as "incredibly passionate about the subject."
 
Ingram hopes to eventually obtain a master's degree in human sexuality and possibly go on to teach sexual education. She also stresses that even juniors and seniors still have time to declare the minor if they are interested.
 
While the SQS minor may be new on campus, Brandeis is not the first university to offer this minor. Colleges across the country, including the University of Maryland, New York University, Yale University and Syracuse University, all offer similar programs or minors in sexuality and queer studies. The University of California, Berkeley was the first school to offer the program in 1970.
 
Though the minor is new, the hope is that it will expand. King hopes to encourage the growth of courses like "Queer Anthropology," which will be offered in the spring. Next academic year, for the first time, an introductory course on sexuality and queer studies will be offered to help the minor become more recognized. 
Another of King's goals is to more fully develop SQS from a historical and intersectional approach to show how sex is cross-cultural and helps shape society. 
 
King hopes Brandeis will become "a destination for students who identify as LGBT or queer" and that it will offer them a community and place to come to explore and think. "As a gay man, it is important to know SQS is given academic seriousness at a welcoming university," he said.