Under President Dr. Robert E. Kennedy (between 1967 and 1978), Cal Poly was the only public campus West of the Mississippi that forced the Gay Student Union (GSU) to sue to become a recognized campus organization; a study by Helen Goo showed that more than 30 percent of Cal Poly varsity players given an attitude survey subscribed to killing all homosexuals; the first GSU President was physically attacked by a group of Cal Poly extracurricular campus athletes; a meeting of the GSU was “bombed” with sticks of explosives; and a limited number of faculty and heads of departments spoke derisively of gays and evangelized in classrooms, hallways, their offices, and elsewhere without repercussion. 

Most complaints about the harassment of gays were not answered by the administration under President Warren Baker (1979 to 2010).

Likely if there is ever a “queer curriculum,” Cal Poly will recruit from an evangelical or religiously affiliated university (i.e., Liberty, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson’s CBN University, Notre Dame, etc.). 

Students at Cal Poly are seldom, if ever, introduced to the scientific literature on gender and sex.

While it appears some progress has been made in the political and social realms regarding sex and gender identity, it is unlikely Cal Poly will ever endorse a fully functional minor or take sex and gender orientation seriously.

-- Norman C. Murphy - Retired Cal Poly Psychologist and Licensed Psychologist, San Luis Obispo