Institute for Gay Studies Has Modest Beginnings, High Hopes : Education: The school was created by a transportation planner and a neuroscientist. Enrollment has been far lower than expected.

It was hardly the typical classroom fare--”Queer Space” and “Homo-Sexual Ethics.” But then, the fledgling Institute of Gay and Lesbian Education is hardly a typical school.

The brainchild of a transportation planner and a neuroscientist, the institute got off to a modest start last week as students from as far away as San Bernardino gathered in borrowed rooms scattered around West Hollywood to explore topics tailored to a gay audience by gay teachers.

For students and instructors, the draw was both the subject matter and the gay-friendly environment. They wouldn’t have to worry about snickers. Their perspective would not be ignored or omitted.

“This is a way of validating that I exist. I’ve been denied that in other courses,” said student Gene Momberger of West Hollywood at the end of his first three-hour class devoted to the “Psychological Development of Gay Men.”

Another student, who identified himself only as David, said that “a class with gays and lesbians would make me less shy” than the community college courses he had taken in the past.

The idea of the institute was hatched a year ago, shortly after West Hollywood planner Christopher Patrouch met scientist Simon LeVay, who had recently gained fame for his research showing anatomical differences between the brains of homosexual and heterosexual men, suggesting a biological link to homosexuality.

LeVay wound up taking a leave of absence from the Salk Institute in La Jolla and moving to West Hollywood to pursue the project with Patrouch and to work on a forthcoming book, “The Sexual Brain.”

Free space was found, teachers were lined up and 8,000 course catalogues were given away. But people have not exactly stampeded to the institute.

Back in February, LeVay was predicting the institute would have 50 courses and 500 students the first year. But only about 75 people signed up for classes, and 14 of 22 courses listed in the fall catalogue were canceled for lack of enrollment.

In retrospect, LeVay says, a roster of nearly two dozen courses for the institute’s debut was probably a bit ambitious. The $175-a-course registration fee may also be a problem in these recession days.

Among the eight surviving courses are conversational French, “Lesbian Writers of the 20th Century,” a class in the science of human sexuality taught by LeVay and “Queer Space: Gays and Lesbians and Their Built Environment,” an examination of how homosexuals relate to the city.

In designing the curriculum, Patrouch and LeVay wanted to combine gay topics with non-gay subjects taught from the homosexual perspective--a counter to education that treats all the world as heterosexual. Instead of French exercises that revolve around Pierre and Anne, students dissect sentences about Pierre and Roger. Legal courses focus on the law and sexual orientation. Literature courses focus on the many gay authors every college student reads without being told the writers are homosexual.

“Being ignored is just the worst,” declares Patrouch, 31, a tanned, fast-talking bicyclist from New York.

The teaching of non-gay topics with a gay spin is one of the most unusual aspects of the institute. There are an increasing number of gay studies courses in colleges around the nation and the One Institute of Homophile Studies in Los Angeles has been offering lectures and extension courses for 40 years, along with more recent degree programs. But they all stick to gay topics.

The aim of the institute, which is open to anyone, is to offer homosexuals an education in a gay setting.

“I think it’s important to experience what it’s like to be in a gay and lesbian environment, where for the first time you realize you’re not a second-class citizen,” Patrouch said. “I also think it’s important to define homosexuality for ourselves as opposed to having (the definition) thrust on us by a straight, homophobic world.”

Eventually, the co-founders would like to see the institute evolve into a fully credentialed college--similar to those founded for women and African-Americans. A gay learning environment will “help us be ourselves and be more open,” said LeVay, who, like Patrouch, is openly gay.

As for the issue of self-imposed segregation of gays, LeVay argued, “In a sense, we isolate ourselves by not having something like this.”

LeVay’s leave from the Salk Institute ends next March, but he is not sure he will return. At 49, he says he is at a stage in his career when people “think you’re weird” for spending a lot of time in a lab doing research, although that is what he likes. Even on his leave, he has been working on another brain study involving gender and sexual orientation.

Meanwhile, Patrouch says the institute will embark on a more aggressive advertising campaign to promote next semester’s classes and perhaps reduce fees.