From GLF to Q&A: Gender and Student Organizing from the 1970s to the 1990s
The Gay Liberation Front continued to change based on student initiative. Read (Schusky) Weaver (AB 1981) wanted to make the Gay Liberation Front more welcoming for lesbians and the name Gay and Lesbian Alliance [GALA] was adopted in 1978. However, female enrollment in the College hovered around one-third during the 1970s, and women like Esther Stearns (AB 1982) remembered that their experiences with sexism made them far more politicized than GALA men.
Women were consequently more likely to engage politically in lesbian feminist activities outside of the University. Lavender Woman editor Marie Kuda and pulp novelist Valerie Taylor organized Lesbian Writers' Conferences at the Blue Gargoyle annually from 1974-1978. The first conference was dedicated to noted lesbian librarian Jeanette Foster (AM 1922, PhD 1935).
At the same time, GALA worked to make the gay community visible on campus. This t-shirt, designed by Scott Dennis (AB 1982) parodied a popular campus tee that sported the phrase: "Ho-Ho. The University of Chicago is funnier than you think." When GALA began to print their version, the house that sold the original "Ho-ho" t-shirt threatened to sue, claiming that GALA had destroyed the market for their offering.
Starting in the early 1990s, new organizations on campus included the University of Chicago Bisexual Union [UCBU], Queer University, and the Uppity Les/Bi/Gays [later the Uppity Queers]. University students were featured in a Newsweek cover story about bisexuality in 1995.
GALA briefly considered the name BT-GALA, but ultimately the group changed from GALA to "Queers and Associates" during the 1995-1996 academic year, one of the first LGBTQ campus groups in the nation to incorporate "queer" into its name.
The 1990s were also a time that the first narrators recall that people were beginning to publicly question gender identity on campus. One narrator donated a copy of Kate Bornstein's gender workbook, which they used in thinking through their own gender identity.
Broadside, 1969?
University of Chicago Committee on University Women Records
T-shirt, 1981-1982
Closeted/Out on the Quadrangles. Collection
Donated by Scott Dennis
Closeted/Out on the Quadrangles Collection
Donated by Lauren Stokes
Photograph
Closeted/Out on the Quadrangles Collection
Donated by Dena van der Wal
Dena van der Wal (BA 1996), was a female co-president who tried to involve more women. Her photographs of GALA members at the 1993 March on Washington give a sense of cutting-edge gay and lesbian style at the time.
