LGBT in Paris

Program Description

LGBT in Paris Program, 2010
January 3-22

The LGBT in Paris Program provides students with the opportunity to view their world in a global context. This program offers insights into a gay community outside the United States, underscoring the notion that gay issues depend on more than just sexual orientation, but also social and historical contexts.

Paris has always been a center of interest for gay and lesbian people. Americans tend to find French and Parisians more open-minded about sexual orientation and about sexual identity in general. The opportunity to study LGBT issues in Paris provides immediate access to information and observation that can facilitate understanding differences between the United States and France, New York, and Paris - both generally, and, in particular, in terms of the LGBT "community."

We also meet people from Parisian gay organizations that will discuss the gay scene - political, social and cultural - that makes the gay experience in Paris different from the one in the United States.

The City of Lights has so much to offer: famous monuments and sites (Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Orsay Museum, to name a few), beautiful cityscapes (the Tuileries Garden, the Luxembourg Garden, and countless small parks with fountains, cafes, terraces and medieval churches), clubs, bookstores - and the after-Christmas sales!