Despite devastating budget shortfalls and mounting unemployment insurance claims, Georgia lawmakers have recently turned their attention elsewhere -- "sex education" at a local university.

In early February, Georgia State University came into local news prominence after the annual GSU expert compendium hit the Capitol. The guide is meant to be just that -- a guide for lawmakers to access knowledgeable resources for various questions that may arise from hearings and proposed bills.

When flipping through the manual, Representative Calvin Hill (R-Canton) found something that didn't quite sit with his traditional Republican ideals – resources on queer theory, male prostitution and oral sex. Joined by Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Woodstock), the pair spoke to peers, constituents and the media on the lack of both morality and relevance for those topics to be taught at a public university. "I'm personally outraged that our taxpayer money is supporting professors, that this is what they’re offering as their services," Hill said at the time. "I don't think we need that at a public university. That's a waste of our money."

But Hill was a bit uninformed, it was soon realized.

Just a week after railing on the school at the Capitol, Hill quickly switched his stance to highly praise the school once he discovered the guide was not a list of available courses but simply just an expert guide, a realization made possible by a visit from two of the professors – sociologist Mindy Stombler, listed as an expert in oral sex, and Kirk Elifson, an authority on male prostitution. In a presentation to the Senate Higher Education Committee, the two defended their knowledge and relevancy.

Elifson claimed he became an expert while serving as a captain in the Army in Vietnam, and pursued the topic in higher education. He says he has worked with the Centers Disease Control and Prevention, which has utilized his knowledge in battling the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. He said his current work is geared towards curbing Georgia's growing rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

Stombler said the main thrust of research examines the attitudes of teens toward sex, a group who are increasingly open to oral sex as a socially acceptable way to interact.

In the committee hearing, Hill commended the professors, and blamed the media for blowing the issue out of proportion. While he admitted he misunderstood the guide, he also maintained, though, that in an age of budget cuts, public universities should not offer any classes that do not give the students a leg up in finding a job after graduation, though only mentioning these specific topics. He failed to mention his reasoning would lead to the canceling of many classes, such as athletic classes for students who aren’t pursuing a degree in physical education, literature classes for any student not wanting an English degree and most any other core curriculum or elective class the school offers its students.

By singling out the more sexually charged topics, many argue, the religious and moral beliefs of some are imposed upon students who are going to college for the age-old reason -- to discover interests in themselves through curriculum, developing those interests into a possible career or just deepening their knowledge of the world around them.

Both professors recently presented testimony at the Georgia Senate committee on higher education, and while some senators – such as Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) -- were supportive of their work, others seem skeptical, bringing into question the ability of a lawmaker to call for the canceling of classes, curriculum or research due to a conflict in moral beliefs disguised as cost-cutting measures in a time of a budget shortfall.

It is unclear as of now the outcome of the hearings or if any action will be taken against the schools or the professors

Interestingly, though, on February 23, former Georgia State University lecturer and current PhD student Matthew Cardinale filed an eight page complaint against GSU Sociology Department Chair Donald Reitzes and Stombler alleging the two engaged in “an unjust, unethical, and discriminatory effort” to terminate Cardinale because he invited an Atlanta police officer – and noted intersex – to speak to a Introduction to Sociology class.

"Because we do define sex and gender in any 101 class, I felt it was important to define those terms accurately and inclusively from the beginning," Cardinale said in a press release distributed through the Atlanta Progressive News.

According to the release, Stombler ordered Cardinale to take the expanded curriculum out of his lesson plan, an order by which Cardinale refused to comply. But as an instructor pursuing a higher degree, his control over curriculum is designed to be limited, with the overseeing professor (in this case Stombler) having control of what is taught. Generally, though, introduction classes follow a standard format that is fairly uniform in most schools.

But Cardinale claims discrimination for his choice to include an intersex, defending like Stombler and the Georgia legislature – his right to embark on educational pursuits he feels important and necessary. And as his complaint runs its course through the usual channels, the question will be inevitably raised -- does not-so-mainstream sex education belong in introductory classes?