Penn State professor instructs college students to watch gay porn to awaken their bisexual identity: 'See how quickly you feel aroused'

A Penn State University professor is facing controversy for instructing college students to watch gay or lesbian porn to awaken their bisexual identity.

Pennsylvania State University sociology professor Sam Richards reportedly challenged his students to watch gay porn to see how quickly they'll "feel aroused," according to Fox News. The controversial comments were made during a Dec. 6 lecture titled: "A Conversation on Trans Issues, TERFs [Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists], and The Binary."

"If you're straight, watch gay or lesbian porn and see how quickly you feel aroused. And how you can't control that," Richards told his students. "You’ll realize that, ‘Oh, damn, I could be sexualized by people who are like me.'"

Richards argued that everyone is "at some level non-binary" and "easily bisexual."

The class was mostly silent in response to the claim.

Richards responded to the silence by saying, "I might have hit a nerve there. Did I hit a nerve?"

Richards allegedly then singled out the "straight folks" in the class, "especially men."

The Penn State professor reportedly told his male students, "Watch gay porn. See if you feel that feeling. If you feel that feeling, look in a mirror, and say, 'Huh, maybe I'm just feeling some things that I’m just afraid to release.' And maybe you release that and maybe you'd be surprised that maybe you actually are fine being more bisexual."

Professor Richards reportedly told the class a story about a student who transitioned to a different gender.

Richards is said to have provided female students advice on how to urinate while standing upright.

Richards purportedly said, "Women, you should know this, by the way, the little trick, you can have a little piece of leather and fold it up and use that to go in the urinal or go outside."

A Penn State representative told Fox News that "academic freedom for faculty" is important in promoting "critical thinking and discussion."

The lecture was uploaded to Richards' YouTube channel dedicated to the SOC 119 course. The video of the lecture was deleted from the YouTube channel.

The Penn State website stated, "Every semester 725 students register for SOC 119, the largest race and ethnic relations course in the country."

The university claimed that the course provides students "the opportunity to re-examine the world and challenge what they believe to be their place in it from a new perspective." The description said Richards' class is "praised by students and faculty from all sides of the political spectrum."

In 2021, Richards sparked uproar when he instructed an "average white" student to stand up in front of a lecture hall of 700 people. The professor drew attention to the white student to demonstrate the effects of systemic racism and claimed that the white student has an inherent "benefit" over any black student.

The out-of-state tuition at Pennsylvania State University is more than $38,000 a year.

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