It surprises me that anyone would think the class is actually about "How to be gay." To me it's clear that the name is just designed to make students take notice when they're scanning the course book for classes to fulfill their social studies requirement (or whatever the Michigan equivalent of that is).

Yes, the name is not reprentative of the course. It should really be something like "Studies in the Evolution of Gay Culture" or something; but, as sugar and spice points out, that's not quite as eye catching.

as a proponet of the freedom of ideas and expression, I think the course is just fine

Teachers make crazy names for courses all the time. Like that class at some school that studied Keanu Reeves films. The title made it seem like all you did was watch Bill and Ted and Point Break, but the content was much more than that. The names are for the students, not the media.
As for this class being "inappropriate" I think the proffesor answered that when he said that it would be helpful for people who are going into a field where they would have to deal with lots of different cultures/backgrounds. There's nothing wrong with learning about people that are different than yourself.

Maybe its how to use KY