LGBTQ+ Campus Resources

The UMF OutList is a voluntary roster of University of Maine at Farmington faculty, staff and administrators who hold LGBTQIA+ identities and are open and “out” about them. The idea for publishing this voluntary list is to allow current and prospective students to see that people who hold such identities can reach a point where they’re able to be out and open about who they are.

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UMF Student Counseling Services provides confidential, on-campus and remote mental health and personal counseling and support that can assist all students in coping with issues that interfere with their personal and academic development and well-being. Our Counselors understand that LGBTQ+ students face specific societal and personal stressors.

Counselors are available to support LGBTQ+ students with a wide variety of concerns, including:

• Feelings of anxiety or depression\Concerns related to one’s own gender identity and / or sexuality
• Communicating about gender identity and sexuality with others
• Establishing safety and support networks
• Healing from trauma which has resulted from expressed or assumed gender identity, gender expression, or sexuality
• Navigating sexual health and healthy relationships
• Referrals for additional treatment or services, such as gender-affirming medical treatment

During your initial visit, Counselors will work with you to identify goals and assess the level of support needed. While certain documents require students to use their legal name, Counselors will always respect your chosen name and pronouns in their interactions with you.

To request a Counseling appointment or for more information, visit the UMF Counseling Center

To ensure we’re providing a safe and supportive space for residents of all gender identities and gender expressions, the University of Maine at Farmington offers optional gender-inclusive housing in each of our residence halls.

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UMF recognizes that many members of our community use names other than their legal names. For some, a chosen or preferred name may be an important component of their identity. We get it.

Here, YOU have the option to indicate a chosenor preferred  name, personal pronouns and gender identity — even if you haven’t changed you legal name.

See the University of Maine System Name Usage Poilcy — including how to go about changing your name (updated April 24, 2023).

ANT 275S  Gender, Sexuality and Society: This course provides an introduction to the anthropology of gender, which draws from but is not reducible to feminist studies and activism, postcolonial studies, as well as recent work in globalization and transnationalism. Utilizing cross-cultural materials students explore topics such as: gender, healing and religion; gender identity and sexuality; colonialism, globalization and labor; gender-based violence; among others.

ENG 288H  Topics in Literature and Gender: This course will explore gender as both a social-historical construct and an aspect of lived experience in relation to texts, authors, and readers. Course materials will include texts which foreground questions of gender and sexuality, with secondary readings in feminist and gender studies.

ENG 292H  Human Rights Literature and Film – Global Perspectives: Who has access to education and clean water, does not face torture or discrimination, may speak freely and move safely? Investigate these and other human rights through the study of contemporary world literature and film. In this online course, participants will: 1) gain a broad appreciation for human rights history and philosophy; 2) analyze how literary and filmic texts (such as short stories, graphic novels, documentaries, and feature films) address human rights issues in specific locations; 3) engage in asynchronous interactions with class members; and 4) complete a project on a human rights topic of choice.

ENG 295H  Female Body in Western Culture: In this course we will examine historical and contemporary understandings of the female body in Western culture. We will study constructions of the female body in medicine and science, in the law, in the media, in literature, and in sport culture. Our goals are to become more astute cultural critics, to better understand the political, personal, intellectual, and social ramifications of dominant representations of the female body, and to analyze challenges to these representations—in theory, research, literature, the arts, and in everyday embodied practices.

HEA 101  Health and Society: This course explores societal health issues through interdisciplinary perspectives. Social, political, and economic aspects of health promotion, factors related to social justice, and the controversy behind health legislation are each explored. Select issues include teen pregnancy, obesity, gun control, drug abuse, tobacco control, birth control, access to health care, gay and lesbian rights, abortion, violence and abusive behavior, and death and dying.

HEA 262  Human Sexuality: Human sexuality throughout the life span is explored through holistic and interdisciplinary perspectives. Controversial issues surrounding multiculturalism are researched. Students will study the content and application of sexuality education for individuals and communities.

WST 101S  Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies: This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary study of women and gender. Students will learn about the diverse histories that make women’s studies a complex, but dynamic site for understanding how our ideas about healthcare, history, politics, media, and labor are shaped by gender, race, class, and nation. Students will also gain the conceptual tools, vocabulary, and methods that will help them analyze these ideas and contribute their own informed understandings to the study of women and gender.

WST 249  Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Studies: This course provides students with an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) studies. Students study the emergence and transformation of LGBTQ+ identities, cultural practices, and political movements within the broader context of changes in social constructions of sexuality, as well as cultural, social, political, and economic transformations. The course centers questions of normativity, explores how power is implicated in queer politics and sexuality, and how race, class, and nationality impact constructions of sexuality and gender.

WST 266H  The Female Body in Western Culture: In this course we will examine historical and contemporary understandings of the female body in Western culture. We will study constructions of the female body in medicine and science, in the law, in the media, in literature, and in sport culture. Our goals are to become more astute cultural critics, to better understand the political, personal, intellectual, and social ramifications of dominant representations of the female body, and to analyze challenges to these representations — in theory, research, literature, the arts, and in everyday embodied practices.

WST 267  Gender and the Cultures of Globalization: In this interdisciplinary course, students study globalization as a diverse historical process that both shapes and is shaped by gender. We will explore how gender is implicated in the relations of people and cultures in and between nations through colonialism, war, immigration and migration, tourism and travel, transnational modes of production and exchange and transnational coalitions. While the course will focus on fiction, film and memoir, we will also have readings from geography, history, anthropology, and economics.