Teaching Resources

Syllabus: Gender and Sexualities of Early Christians

This syllabus examines several gender and sexuality topics, giving special attention to questions like what being “straight” looked like in antiquity, which ancient Christian lifestyles can be considered “queer,” and whether early Christian thinkers saw gender (here meaning sexual difference or gender-and-sex) as an eternal or temporary aspect of being human. This seminary/graduate course asks students to compare ancient and present-day issues/categories and to question current assumptions in our home cultures about how gender functions (and for whom), how gender and sexuality identities relate, and how Christianity has historically shaped societal options and expectations for these aspects of life. Winner of LGBTQ-RAN's Educational Resource Prize in 2024.

Syllabus: Sex Wars: Religion and Gender in the Public Sphere

This undergraduate course focuses on increasing understanding of and critical engagement with present U.S. debates around religion, gender, and sexuality. It probes such questions as how to make sense of growing up in the #MeToo moment, anti-trans evangelical activism, and what it means to live in a post-Roe U.S. The syllabus uses our present moment as a lens through which to view, engage, and understand the historical and contemporary development of the relationship between religion, gender, and sexuality. Honorable Mention of LGBTQ-RAN's Educational Resource Prize in 2024.

Lesson Plan: Sacred Sexualities

This lesson plan explores the complex and multiple roles that religion has played in different LGBTQ+ human rights struggles across North America. This primary source-based lesson plan presents a total of six individual “case studies” that each highlight different LGBTQ+ religious leaders. Created by Jamie Myre during her 2023 summer internship with LGBTQ-RAN.

Syllabus: Buddhism, Race, Gender, and Sexuality

This syllabus centers the voices of Buddhist practitioners whose voices have been institutionally marginalized yet who articulate the critical necessity of acknowledging race, gender, sexuality, and class in predominantly-white Buddhist institutions in the U.S. In contesting prevailing notions of power—in the spirit of Black, queer ancestors James Baldwin and Audre Lorde—the syllabus privileges an intersectional approach to honoring embodied identities and differences within Buddhist communities in the U.S. Winner of LGBTQ-RAN's Educational Resource Prize in 2023.

Resource: BiPOC Religion and AIDS Activism

This educational resource, while not comprehensive, provides original, thought-provoking teaching materials on how Black Churches and Black Activists in various religious traditions responded to the scourge of HIV in their Black communities.

Course: Queering the Spirit

This course offers the opportunity to examine religion as experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual people. It adopts a comparative historical perspective in considering the multiplicity of LGBTQIA+ religious identities that have existed and continue to thrive around the world. Winner of LGBTQ-RAN’s Educational Resource Prize in 2022.

Syllabus: Queerness at the Potluck

This syllabus intended for a co-taught course for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students at a public university. The course has been made for students in the humanities and social sciences with special interests in lgbtq+ religious history. Honorable mention of the LGBTQ-RAN's Educational Resource Prize in 2022.

Workshop: Queering Religious Archives

This three-hour workshop, situated in a library or archive, introduces students in college, seminary, or graduate school to researching LGBTQ subjects using primary-source documents. Winner of LGBTQ-RAN's Educational Resource Prize in 2021.

Tag Scavenger Hunt

This tag scavenger hunt activity gives students practice researching and finding information via tags, while familiarizing them with LGBTQ religious history. Intended for 11-12th grade or college-age students, its lesson plan includes objectives and a Common Core cross-reference.

Quiz on LGBTQ+ Religious History

This 12-question quiz covers significant events and persons in LGBTQ+ religious history and can be used to introduce students to the subject and to stimulate further research and discussion.

Study Guides

Upstairs Lounge Fire Exhibit

This discussion guide on the Upstairs Lounge Fire exhibit is intended for use in an undergraduate class session on LGBTQ+ history but may be adapted for other types of study.

Video Clips

LGBTQ-RAN provides these short video clips from presentations made by LGBTQ Christian leaders in the U.S. at the Rolling the Stone Away: Generations of Justice and Love Conference in October 2017. These video clips are intended for use in classrooms and instructional settings to illustrate the development and history of LGBTQ religious movements. Permission is given for one-time use in a classroom or other educational settings. For all other uses, contact info@lgbtqreligiousarchives.org.