Chancellor Holden Thorpe congratulates graduating Sexuality Studies minor Addison Evans at this year's Lavender Graduation

The Program in Sexuality Studies is responding to big challenges and continuing to support the work of students and faculty in our field.

5:30 p.m., University Room, Hyde Hall. Reception to follow.

Please join us for this very important event.

Thursday, February 23 at 5:30 p.m., Kresge Foundation Common Room, Graham Memorial Hall. Mark L. Hatzenbuehler is Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Columbia University. Read about it in the DTH.

Tuesday, February 7 at 5:30 p.m. in the University Room, Hyde Hall. A reception will follow the lecture. Nancy F. Cott of Harvard University will discuss her work on Perry v. Schwarzenneger, a federal lawsuit that sought to strike down Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that amended the California Constitution to restrict marriage to couples of the opposite sex. This landmark case will probably make its way to the United States Supreme Court.

Hear Stephanie Coontz, who will deliver the April 5 Equality Matters lecture, discuss why fewer couples are choosing marriage on NPR's Morning Edition (12/14/2011).

Read her article, "Gay Marriage Isn't Revolutionary. It's Just Next," on line.

Lee Storrow '11 has been elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council. Currently the managing director of the N. C. Alliance for Health, promoting wellness by targeting obesity and tobacco use, Storrow will take his seat on the Council in December. WCHL observed that,"Not only is Storrow the youngest current council member, he also joins Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt as the Council's second openly gay member. (Heading into the election,  there were only seven openly gay elected officials in North Carolina.)"

Tuesday, November 15 at 5:30 p.m. in Fred Brooks 009, Sitterson Hall. Gary Gates, demographer-in-residence at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law, will explain what the latest census reveals about same-sex unions in the United States.

Thursday, October 13 at 5:30 p.m. in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall. Will gay people change marriage? Will marriage change gay people? Are we moving too fast? What are the implications for couples, state budgets, and local economies of letting gay people marry?

This important and timely SXST event on Thursday, September 8th, led to an article in the New York Times. UNC Law professor Holning Lau, one of our panelists, is quoted. The idea for the article was suggested by a Chapel Hill resident who attended the event.

Anqi Li '11 (B.A. with Highest Honors in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication), won the 2011 Prize for Best Undergraduate Work in Sexuality Studies for her honors thesis, "Back to the Future:Use of history in newspaper coverage and judicial records on marriage equality for same-sex couples during and after Perry v. Schwarzenegger." Photo by Sarah Matista.

Matthew Karkutt '11, our first Sexuality Studies Major. Pictured here at the Lavender Graduation ceremony with Prof. Megan Matchinske (English), who advised his honors thesis on "AIDS in the Age of Genocide." Photo by Sarah Matista.

Jennifer Donnally and Mark Hornburg with UNC alum Susan Rodemier, who helped fund two graduate research fellowships this year. Jennifer Donnally will use the support to travel to Wichita, Kansas this summer to research conservative anti-abortion coalition building in the 1980s. Mark Hornburg will use his award to travel to Germany to research his dissertation on Prisoners under Paragraph 175: Homosexuality and Masculinity in NAZI Germany.

Sexuality Studies minors, friends, family, and faculty were among those celebrating graduation at this year's Lavender Graduation Ceremony. Photo by Sarah Matista.

Sexuality studies minors Evan Bynum '11 and Evan Tasios '11 visited during the reception following our annual Lavender Graduation Ceremony. Photo by Sarah Matista.