Harvard University has made a breakthrough move that is certain to be revered within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. According to the New York Times, the university has made plans to endow a visiting professorship in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies, making it the endowed, named chair in this particular area of study.

The professorship has been made possible by the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus, which is giving the university a $1.5 million gift to aid in the movement. According to Harvard officials, the gift will be used to help the university to bring “eminent scholars studying issues related to sexuality or sexual minorities” to the campus to teach for one semester at a time.

Harvard’s new chair position is being named in the honor of F.O. Matthiessen, who was a literary critic and Harvard Scholar who “stands out as an unusual example of a gay man who lived his sexuality as an ‘open secret’ in the mid-20th century.” Sadly, Matthiessen is reported to have committed suicide by jumping from the window of a hotel room in Boston in 1950.

Although Harvard’s move to endow a visiting professorship in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies appears to be the first of its kind, it is not the first university to offer coursework in the area. In fact, the City University of New York was the first university to offer a program in gay and lesbian studies, which it began offering as early as 1986. Yale also accepted a $1 million gift from Arthur Kramer, who was the brother of writer and AIDS activist Larry Kramer, in order to finance a gay and lesbian studies program in the 1990s. The university had rejected previous offer from Larry Kramer in the 1990s, however, that would have resulted in Yale be the first to have an endowed chair in the area of gay studies.