Republican Georgia state Representatives Charlice Byrd and Calvin Hill have spearheaded efforts in the state to cut funding for professors who teach college-level courses on queer theory, reproduction, and sexuality. Two of the experts that Byrd and Hill have targeted spoke to a state House committee yesterday about the practical academic applications of their research, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
University of Georgia spokesman Tom Jackson told the Athens Banner-Herald that one of the professors, who is listed in the university’s media guide as an expert in male prostitution, “is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar and the material he is studying is an internationally recognized field of the role of homosexuals in society, particularly as it relates to the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity and the impacts those have on public policy.” Byrd and Hill reportedly had initially mistaken the areas of expertise listed in the media guide as a list of courses.
Georgia state University System Board of Regents spokesman John Millsaps told the Athens Banner-Herald last week that “certainly the mission of higher education is to broaden the field of knowledge and research that covers a lot of topics. Some may be considered to some as controversial, but to others it could be considered needed.”
