The American Academy of Religion runs an advice column. This particular question struck me as fascinating.
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I think it would really help to see both sides of the argument for different individuals. It could however be very triggering for some queer individuals in the class to have to endure hearing potential homophobic remarks in the debate, and even worse if a queer individual was assigned to debating why gay marriage shouldn't be legal. It could even lead to a potential outing if they had to explain why they felt they couldn't argue against gay marriage.
There are no place for homophobic remarks in an academic discussion of the ethics of same-sex marriage, and I would hope that a classroom of students would collectively work toward maintaining a civil and open-minded discussion. The professor can be the first to ridicule students for voicing unsupported personal opinions. In college, students are supposed to be taught to apply critical thinking skills. For example, when I took classes in world literature, I was free to express my dislike of a particular reading in my weekly class discussions, but just saying something like "I hated this story because it was stupid!" would have earned me no credit. Conversely, something more along the lines of "I disliked this story, because I felt the storyline was flawed when such and such did something or other, and..." would have been a perfectly acceptable point of view to present to the class. Most professors (good ones, anyway) make it perfectly clear that their classes are not a place to spout off unsupported opinions, but rather, a proper demonstration of critical thinking will be required. That being said, the concern is for students who do not follow the directions. I am not inclined to believe that the average student would go out of control voicing hateful opinions, however. A good professor can keep things under control, and hopefully there will always be enough pro-gay rights students to let any LGBTQ student know that not everyone in the world is homophobic. Also, I have taken many college classes in which I was forewarned in the syllabus that taking a class would potentially expose me to controversial themes and subject matter. If a professor puts a brief outline of the topics to be covered in his/her class in his/her syllabus, then LGBTQ students can decide before taking a class, whether or not they will feel comfortable with gay-rights discussions.
I guess I didn't read carefully enough and just assumed this was taking place in high school. The fact that it was in college does change things somewhat.
