Bring Back the Double Beds! Alumni Response to the Formation of the Gay Student Union

The initial meeting of UNC Greensboro’s first LGBTQ+ student group, the Gay Student Union, occurred in September 25, 1979, but the first meeting as a university-recognized organization occurred one month later, on October 25th.(2) Immediately after the front page announcement for the Gay Student Union in The Carolinian was published, letters began coming into university administration from disgruntled alumni. The tone of all letters preserved in university records is negative, perceiving campus administration as encouraging the practice of homosexuality by allowing a student group:

“I write in protest the use of facilities of a tax-supported university by such an organization as that reported in The Carolinian excerpt. I also protest the official status given the organization by the administration, the participation by a faculty member as “faculty adviser,” and any other activity by which the administration or faculty may be encouraging homosexual activity among university students or others at the university.”(3)

Various arguments were written against the permitting of the formation of the Gay Student Union, some more coherent than others. There were two prominent themes among the letters. The first is that homosexuality is a perversion leading to the collapse of civilization:

“Oh, yes, homosexuality is chic now in many parts of our land. It has always become fashionable in every nation turned decadent -- thus preferring ‘gay’ irresponsible sterility to the sober source of its strength -- the family and the home.”(4)

The second argument is that by joining the Gay Student Union, young people would be stunting their maturity(5), and if the students isolated themselves, they would never be able to adapt to living in heterosexual society:

“The point that I am making, and I think it is incontrovertable [writer’s spelling] is that, if they separate themselves from the rest of the college community into a ‘gay’ organization they will have tremendously difficult time changing to the ‘straight’ community if they should wish to do so later. The idea is that a college should open doors, not close them. I know that when I went to N.C.C.W. then a woman’s college, many girl’s had crushes. They ran their course and were usually over before the senior year. Many, many young people do have a terrific orientation of affection to someone of the same sex during these years. I think that a great many of the girls who had ‘crushes’ then would have joined such an organization if it had existed at the time [space added] Later, with his or her picture appearing as ‘Treasurer of the ‘Gay’ organization or becoming known as a faithful attendant of its meetings and social events, the person would be pigeonholed and freedom of choice la ter [space original to letter] on made extremely difficult.”(6)

Although the letters were addressed to different individual(7), James H. Allen (Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs) was the person who responded to the letters. The same reply was used for all of the letters, emphasizing that UNC Greensboro as an institution,

“... has always sought to maintain an open atmosphere in which various ideas and movements which are influencing our society may be carefully studied and discussed in the belief that knowledge and understanding provide the surest foundation upon which we may build a stable society.”(8)

Allen continued to write that the Gay Student Union met the same requirements of any official student organization, and that aside from the university recognizing the organization, the only resources allocated to the Gay Student Union by the school was a place to meet and that their activities could be listed on the university’s calendar. The letters end by citing several federal court cases in which LGBTQ student organizations won suits against universities for withholding official group status.

It should be noted that most of the people writing in complaint were alumna from the 1920s. Through most of their lives, homosexuality was a mental disorder. Theirs is not a surprising response to the formation of a LGBTQ student organization, nor would their written protest be the worse dissent with which the LGBTQ students of UNCG would contend.

1. "Bring Back the Double Beds" the phrase refers to how students would sleep two to a bed when the campus first opened in 1892. Students could pay $4 extra to have their own bed. After the campus Typhoid Epidemic in 1899, students were assigned their own single beds due to health regulation.

2. "Corrections," The Carolinian, Nov. 6, 1979, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

3. Mattie Erma Parker, Letter to Dr. William C. Friday, Nov. 12, 1979, MS. PRIDE!, Student Organizations, UA 51.27, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

4. Katherine G. Rogers, Letter to Trudy Walton Atkins, Feb. 1, 1980, MS. PRIDE!, Student Organizations, UA 51.27, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

5. See LGBTQ+ Topics in the Early College Curriculum

6. Julia Blauvelt Crum, Letter to Dr. James H. Allen, Jan. 20, 1980, MS. PRIDE!, Student Organizations, UA 51.27, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

7. Letters were sent to James H. Allen, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UNCG, William Friday, President of the UNC System, as well as editors of the UNCG Alumni News and the Greensboro News and Record.

8. James H. Allen, Letter to Julia Blauvelt Crum, Feb. 13, 1980, MS. PRIDE!, Student Organizations, UA 51.27, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

Counseling for the “Crush,” Key L. Barkley and Early Lesbian Students

Oral histories conducted with early UNC Greensboro campus faculty provide rare glimpses into the lives of LGBTQ students, if only illustrating the population’s need to remain hidden for survival. An interview with Professor Key L. Barkley(1) reveals that early students were having lesbian encounters. Barkley (1900- 2001) was a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at the Woman’s College (now UNC Greensboro) from 1931 to 1949. Students would seek counseling from him because there was no office on campus where students could unburden themselves by discussing significant life events with any assurance of confidentiality. Barkley was hired as teaching faculty, not clinical faculty(2), but at the time of Barkley’s hiring there were no professionally trained mental health professionals on campus. Eventually, he would successfully petition for a professional psychiatrist position.

Students occasionally would seek guidance from Barkley about lesbian encounters with other students. Openly admitting to a lesbian experience or identifying as a lesbian on campus was dangerous. It is known that students were aware that homosexuality by some definition existed, but had no campus support they could trust to understand their personal experiences in context. As a psychological disorder(3), homosexual behavior could be used as pretext to expel a student as suffering from a mental disorder that could not be treated by campus medical staff. Barkley, before the hiring of a campus psychiatrist, was the closest to a mental health care professional bound by patient-doctor confidentiality available on campus, and students trusted him for his expertise and discretion.

Word spread that Barkley was providing counseling to students, and the Dean of Women(4) interrogated him. To her horror, Barkley admitted that some students were seeking counseling from him about their lesbian encounters. The Dean reported this information to Chancellor Walter Clinton Jackson. Jackson demanded that Barkley cease counseling the students, stating, "Why, young girls ought not to be talking to young men about this sort of thing."(5)  Barkley told Jackson that he refused to turn away a student coming to speak to him in need. After Barkley’s interaction with the chancellor, he was pressured by the Dean and his department head to seek a position elsewhere, which he would in 1949.

Barkley, as a professional, never divulged the secrets of the students who sought his advice, but in his oral history from 1991, he did offer his generalized opinion relating to lesbian experiences among students. In his own words,

“… you had three or four thousand women shut up over there in a coop. They were sexual as the dickens, at a time when probably they were probably burning as highly as they'd ever burn in their lifetimes. And there they were, highly sexual people with no normal sexual outlets. So there grew up a practice on that campus, as well as many other places, on allowing women a great deal of leeway with respect to homosexual expression with respect to each other—hug each other, kiss each other, caress each other, and so on. Innocent as you please… I told them in my estimation that these girls here are not extensively homosexual in nature, although I had quite a number of episodes involving such. I said, ‘These girls here are not homosexual. They’re just simply sexual with no heterosexual opportunity for expression… I believe that if they just get a chance for them to have heterosexual expression, in most cases their homosexuality will go “poof.’’"(6)

It is interesting to observe that Barkley’s description of the students’ sexual development reflects the model found in the 1921 lecture notes. Throughout most of his career, Barkley taught and practiced with the perspective that homosexuality was an abnormally stagnated stage of sexuality interfering with an individual’s maturation into heterosexual adulthood. This standpoint would be central to whatever advice he conveyed to student. Additionally, for students who took classes with homosexuality discussed as a topic, this would have been possibly the intellectual viewpoint from which they would characterize same sex attraction. It is very likely that Barkley’s assessment was correct in that some of the students experienced lesbian encounters as opposed to dedicated lesbian relationships. What may never be known(7) is how many students would have remained or continued in lesbian relationships if a definition of homosexuality as a natural form of sexuality was accepted at this time.(8)    

1. Oral history interview with Key L. Barkley, 1991, UNCG Centennial Oral History Project, OH003, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA. 

2. Barkley did operate a private psychiatric practice when he was working at the University of Illinois.

3. The American Psychiatric Association did not remove homosexuality as a mental disorder from its diagnostic manual until 1973. The World Health Organization designated homosexuality as a mental disorder until 1992.
4. Harriet Elliott was most likely the Dean of Women at the Women’s College during this encounter (1935-1947), but Barkley does not provide the exact date of the event. 

5.Barkley was forty years old at the time.

6. Oral history interview with Key L. Barkley, 1991, UNCG Centennial Oral History Project, OH003, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.
7. It is possible in the future that personal papers (diaries or letters) or oral histories of alumnae from this time period may offer evidence, but none have yet been found.
8. Max Hirschfeld, at the Institute for Human Sexuality in Berlin, had already accepted the normality of sexual variation in the modern sense from approximately the 1910s onward. See Elena Mancini, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Quest for Sexual Freedom; a History of the First Sexual Freedom Movement (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

LGBTQ+ Topics in the Early College Curriculum

As any researcher of LGBTQ+ history is aware, tracking a hidden population through the historic record relies upon extracting a narrative from rare and frequently cryptic fragments of information. Even though UNC Greensboro began as a college for women with records dating to the school’s chartering in 1891, unearthing even a passing mention of a LGBTQ-related topic in the official records of the university in its earliest years constitutes a major discovery. The first mention of homosexuality found in the historical record of UNC Greensboro (at this time, the North Carolina College for Women) appears in lecture notes from the Department of Physical Education dating to 1921. The content of these notes is crucial not only as early evidence that some students were taught a vocabulary to describe homosexuality, but also in understanding the model of sexuality students would be applying to their own identities.

The lecture notes (1) present a then plausible developmental model of sexuality. It is maintained that from ages 1 to 10, humans exist in a state of bisexuality, described in the notes as “... curiosity age. A trying out, a seeking and testing of parts of the body.” Homosexuality, which is defined in the notes as “Auto eroticism, or love of self,” occurs between the ages of 10 to 22, after which an individual will fully mature into a state of heterosexuality. Homosexuality, as an abnormal state, occurs when that developmental stage is arrested by same sex sexual gratification during the homosexual stage, not allowing an individual to grow into a healthy, heterosexual adult.

The notes focus intensively on the concept of “The Crush” among young women, in which a younger, more submissive woman might be attracted to an older, more confidant woman. Although it is stated that “Love between people of the same sex may be very beautiful,” the lecture warns that the woman with the crush could be drawn into “a condition of submission” or “a condition of weak-willness.” As future educators, the NCCW students receiving this lecture were advised to sublimate the infatuation with someone of the same sex through involvement with social groups and community organizations. Essentially, if a teacher was to observe homosexual behavior that would arrest a young woman’s growth into heterosexuality, they were to redirect the woman’s energy and work it out of her. To reiterate that homosexuality is merely a transition state to heterosexuality, it is asserted that there is “no truly homosexual individual in the world.” (2) In any case, the abnormal state of homosexuality should not be encouraged because it “is immature, non-developing [and] non-constructive,” as “No new life can come from it.”

Homosexuality, then, was an abnormally arrested state of development, and therefore, an illness. Homosexuality was designated a psychological disorder until 1973, sequestering much of the official record of lesbian relationships on this campus among students to the security of student health records. Even before the health record protections of FERPA, student health records were among the most confidential records on campus, and were not transferred to the University Archives as part of the institution's record retention policy. In other words, the records with the potential to be the richest sources for LGBTQ+ history at a university are the most restricted.

In terms of non-medical institutional records and private records, documenting non-heterosexual relationships among students presented a significant danger to both the early institution and the students. It is unlikely a university at that time would retain records documenting instances of discovered homosexual relationships among students for fear of scandal and damage to the institution’s reputation if such records became public knowledge. Personal diaries and letters in which students describe same-sex relationships constituted a great risk for a student, as such material, if discovered, could lead to expulsion from school (and perhaps far more severe consequences at home). For students and administrators at a small women’s college in the Bible Belt, discretion in documenting matters of sexuality was paramount, which is why such little information exists on the LGBTQ history of UNC Greensboro in its early years.

1. The faculty teaching from the notes is not identified. Lecture Notes. Physical Education Department (prior to 1920-1963) Subject File, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.2. The underlined word is underlined in the original material.

LGBTQ Pioneers on Campus: Dr. Thomas K. Fitzgerald

To kick off PRIDE! month at UNC Greensboro, Spartan Stories is highlighting Dr. Thomas K. Fitzgerald, a prominent gay faculty member in the 1970s through 2004.

Thomas (Tom) K. Fitzgerald was born in Lexington, North Carolina. He attended UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating with an A.B. in Anthropology in 1962. Although he originally intended to study Latin and Greek at UNC-Chapel Hill, he was fascinated by anthropology after taking a class early in his college career.

After his time at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dr. Fitzgerald studied in Paris and Stanford before returning to North Carolina. He received a Fulbright Certificate from the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Paris in 1963, and an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University in 1964. 

Dr. Fitzgerald’s time spent in France was particularly formative, as recalled in his oral history interview. Being among other LGBTQ individuals in France and California helped him understand his identity and feel more comfortable coming out. After his studies internationally and nationally, Dr. Fitzgerald received his doctorate from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1969.

Dr. Thomas K. Fitzgerald, ca. 1970s.

Dr. Fitzgerald’s research initially focused on cultural anthropology and shifted to psychological anthropology. He often focused on questions surrounding identity: he introduced many interdisciplinary courses meant to examine identity. 

Chief among those identities, and controversial at the time, was the LGBTQ identity and communities. Early in his career, Dr. Fitzgerald was publishing pieces on homosexuality. As an undergraduate student, Dr. Fitzgerald completed a study of homosexuality as an honors thesis – the most read thesis at the library. The paper posited that anthropology had insight into the human condition and experience of different sexualities. 

Dr. Fitzgerald first came to UNC Greensboro as an assistant professor 1970. In 1974, he transitioned to an associate professor. Upon coming to the university. Dr. Fitzgerald recalls the closeted nature of the campus faculty, despite a fair number of faculty in the anthropology department identifying as such. Although the campus as a whole remained closeted, Dr. Fitzgerald was out upon his arrival at the university.

During his time at UNC Greensboro, Dr. Fitzgerald frequently introduced homosexuality as a topic of study in his courses. Initially, he began by showing films with LGBTQ themes for discussion. The films and topics were well-received by students, but Dr. Fitzgerald was anxious about the overall campus reception to this taboo subject. 

UNC Greensboro promoted Dr. Fitzgerald to full faculty member with tenure in 1980. Although not without contention and some pushback from administrators, Dr. Fitzgerald became the youngest full professor at UNC Greensboro at that time.

In the mid-1970s, Dr. Fitzgerald made history by introducing the first approved college course focused on homosexuality in North Carolina. The course made UNC Greensboro a destination for scholars interested in homosexuality as a topic of study, and individuals traveled from across the state to take the course. The reception was not entirely positive, as Dr. Fitzgerald notes. Any advertisements for the course were ripped down, religious tracts would be left in his mailbox, and he felt pressure from some university administrators.

Dr. Fitzgerald was also crucial in the formation of the Gay Academic Union (GAU) in the 1970s, a community group intended to educated others about homosexuality and provide a safe space for LGBTQ individuals in the Triad community. Initially, the group met in private homes and churches, and later on campus. Dr. Fitzgerald noted that the student population on campus, and in North Carolina, was very receptive to discussing sexuality in an honest and forthright manner, even if administrations were not.

In addition to his work surrounding LGBTQ issues and identities, Dr. Fitzgerald also worked extensively to explore issues of race, both within America and worldwide. He spent two years studying the Maori culture and race relations in New Zealand. Based on his work with the Maori, he proposed that genealogical research and a better understanding of your family and culture’s past were an effective means to overcome racism. 

Dr. Thomas Fitzgerald (left) and Bill Johnston (right).

 Dr. Fitzgerald retired from UNC Greensboro in the 2003-2004 academic year, with 30.5 years of service to the university. He currently lives in Greensboro with his partner, ceramic artist Bill Johnston. If you are interested in learning more, you can view/listen to the oral history with Dr. Fitzgerald and Bill Johnston here.

When Politics and Sexuality Collide: UNCG PRIDE Week, 2004

The intersectionality of political identity versus sex and gender generates combative rhetoric, and UNC Greensboro witnessed such conflict in 2004. PRIDE Week traditionally takes place in March or April on UNC Greensboro’s campus.[1] PRIDE Week was sponsored by the UNC Greensboro student group, PRIDE[2], and included events such as a picnic by a lake, PRIDE Prom, and a student drag show (co-sponsored by the Residence Hall Association), featuring a silent auction and bake sale. The scheduled keynote speaker for UNCG PRIDE Week 2004 was Debra Davis, a retired transgender high school librarian who was executive director of the Gender Education Center.[3] These events were typical of PRIDE Weeks at UNC Greensboro, but the publicity of the week of 2004 was to be unlike that of the past festivities.

 

The Carolinian, March 25, 2004, page 1

Intentionally scheduled to compete with PRIDE Week, the newly formed UNC Greensboro College Republicans scheduled Morality Week at the same time. In the words of a UNC Greensboro senior and member of the College Republicans, “We want to show that there is a large section of society that is not happy with the perverse and degrading change in culture over the past 50 years.”[4] Morality Week began with an affirmative action bake sale, continued with events such as “Right to Life Day,” “No Hump Day,”[5] and a barbecue. The College Republicans selected the University of North Carolina at Wilmington professor, Mike Adams, as their keynote speaker.  The selection and funding of Adams as a speaker caused scandal, as accusations were made by the College Republicans that UNC Greensboro was refusing funding for the conservative speaker and Morality Week events. Argument became especially bitter after Adams wrote an article labeling the university as UNC Gomorrah[6] for funding a lecture by feminist author, photographer, and pornographer, Tristan Taormino, that February.[7]

College Republican chairman, Travis Billingsley, claimed that the student organization was misled purposefully into not filling out an allocation form in order that Morality Week would not receive funds. It was ironic that the College Republicans claimed the lack of funding was overt discrimination, as Jason Crawford, presidential candidate for the College Republicans in 2004, argued for the cutting or elimination of PRIDE’s budget over their Black History Month book display in 2002.[8] As heated debate ensued, the UNC Greensboro Office of Student Life assisted the College Republicans in obtaining $2000 to support their events.[9] When asked why the Office of Student Life decided to step in to offer funding to the College Republicans, Assistant Director of Student Life, Checka Leinwall, stated, “A college campus is one of the hallmark market places of ideas. Morality Week will give our students an opportunity to look at different points of view.”[10]

There was great concern on campus about protests that might occur between organizers at both PRIDE and Morality Week events. The College Republicans’ affirmative action bake sale saw protesters from the UNCG Socialists, UNCG Universalist Unitarians, the NAACP, the UNCG Neo-Black Society, and even a few North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University students. There was no report of UNCG PRIDE and the College Republican members protesting each other’s events. According to Michael Bishop, business manager of PRIDE, “We have decided to take the high road. They [the College Republicans] have a right to have it. It is a slap in the face that they are having it in the same week.”[11] Melissa Holland, the Student Government PRIDE representative, went so far as to suggest “The College Republicans should come to some of our events and listen to what we have to say instead of judging us from a far, and we should do the same.”[12]

Both UNC Greensboro PRIDE and the College Republicans considered their respective events successful. Many people were offended, but there was no report of violence. The significance of this clash of politics versus sexuality and gender on a North Carolina university campus, though it did not seem of great importance at the time, is a foreshadowing of the future. In a few years, North Carolina would receive international attention relating to the state government’s stance on marriage equality and trans issues. PRIDE Week versus Morality Week at UNC Greensboro was a small taste of the controversy that would draw the UNC system universities into news headlines with events that are still unfolding.  

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^[1] UNC Greensboro commemorates PRIDE Week in March, as opposed to June, because the spring semester ends in May, therefore most students would not have the opportunity to celebrate. In 2004, UNC Greensboro PRIDE Week was celebrated from March 18th to March 26th.

^[2] As of 2016, the UNC Greensboro LGBTQ student organization changed its name to the Queer Student Union.

^[3] Hilary Hellens, “PRIDE Week Rolls along According to Schedule,” The Carolinian, Feb. 18, 2002, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[4] Eren Tartaragasi, “Affirmative Action Bake Sale Draws Fire,” The Carolinian, Feb. 18, 2002, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[5] The College Republicans arranged a presenter to speak on sexual abstinence.

^[6] It should be noted that the first Gomorrah reference made to UNC Greensboro is recorded in a letter from disgruntled alumna from 1979.

Mike S. Adams, “Welcome to UNC Gomorrah,” Townhall, March 1, 2004. Accessed Oct. 17, 2017. https://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2004/03/01/welcome-to-unc-gomorrah-n1284950

^[7] There was a perception that Taormino’s lecture was funded officially by UNC Greensboro, using taxpayer money. It was not. The funding was aloccated from student fees all incoming students at UNC Greensboro pay, portions of which are distributed to student groups and student services.

 Joe Killian, “Sex Lecturer’s UNCG Visit Sparks Debate,” Greensboro News and Record (Greensboro, NC), March 21, 2004.

^[8] Joe Wilbur and John W. Ayers, “PRIDE under Siege,” The Carolinian, March 4, 2002, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[9] Anna Liles, “College Republicans Get Money, Support from OSL,” The Carolinian, March 18, 2004, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[10] Ibid.

^[11] Hilary Hellens, “PRIDE Week Rolls along According to Schedule,” The Carolinian, Feb. 18, 2002, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[12] Ibid.

UNC Greensboro Coming Out: Queer Students in the 1990s

The 1990s saw considerable change for the campus climate for UNC Greensboro students.[1] For the first time in newspaper articles, LGBTQ+ students were identifying themselves by name. Literally a century after the doors of the school first opened (1892-1992), there is a published interview with a UNC Greensboro sophomore, Keith Hill, who identified himself as a black, gay male. Hill was a member of the Gay and Lesbian Student Association (GLSA), the current name of the UNC Greensboro LGBTQ+ student organization of the time. The interview was titled, “Dialogue with a Homosexual,” appearing in The Carolinian. Hill’s candid responses provide insight into the lives of LGBTQ+ students on campus, as well as the intersectionality of race and sexuality.

 

The Carolinian, April 16, 1992, page 12

When asked about how other UNC Greensboro students reacted to him coming out, Hill responded,

“Surprisingly, my heterosexual male friends are very supportive… For me, the biggest problem I get is from black students here on-campus because I think blacks are less.. They have less doings with homosexuals than, say, Anglo-Saxon Americans simply because in the black community, it’s not something - since the black community is so steeped in religion and Christianity - and that tradition says homosexuality is wrong. So it’s not something they’re willing to try and accept or even come to terms with.”[2]

When asked about if he feared any discrimination for being openly gay at UNC Greensboro, he says “No, because the way I see it is that, while I’m in school, it is up to me to set the direction I take once I graduate. And if I live that direction openly… every advance that I make, I make it because who I am consists in me being gay.”[3] Additionally, Hill, who was single and twenty-three at the time of the interview, described the difficulties he experienced in trying to find steady relationships.

“I will soon be 24. Based on the average age, this is the time when you meet somebody and start settling down…  But (homosexuals) don’t have the same means for meeting someone that a heterosexual does. You don’t have the same comfortable environment for going out and finding meaningful relationships.”[4]

Not giving up hope, later in the interview, Hill continues to say he wants “to meet another man, fall in love. I want to adopt kids, to have a family… I want to have a big wedding one day!” Among the more thoughtful perspectives Hill offers in the interview is the plight of young gay men looking for role models.

“You have to understand also that in being gay, you don’t have any role models to identify with. The role models you see portrayed are very effeminate in nature or some creature - unnatural, lustful. And so you have to go against all of that programming and begin to identify with the things that give you a sense of well being, of who you are. And most of those things that give you a sense of well being are very atypical - the perfect bod, the perfect clothes.”[5]

Overall, Keith Hill’s interview was a landmark event in UNC Greensboro history, as it was the first time a named student spoke extensively about what it was like to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community on the record. Not only was 1992 the year of Hill’s article, but five months later, the city newspaper, the Greensboro News and Record, covered UNC Greensboro’s National Coming Out Day, interviewing sophomore, Robert Woodard. At UNC Greensboro, National Coming Out Day, observed October 11th, is celebrated with an information booth and ceremony in front of the campus dining hall. Pamphlets, magazines, and buttons relating to LGBTQ+ education are handed out to students, and there is a "coming out ceremony" in which students can publicly identify as LGBTQ+ to the campus. The writer of the article, Bill Morris, begins the piece stating, “He’s a courageous young man, this Robert Woodward.” While the piece was short and the interview only included very basic questions, the tone was very positive for the local media.[6]

About a week after the publishing of the article, Morris was compelled to write a second article describing reader responses to Woodward’s interview, starting with, “It never fails. Every time I put forth the unthinkable notion that homosexuals are human beings - as I did last week while praising students at UNCG for organizing “Coming Out Day” - the yahoos get riled up.”[7] One of the letters to Morris accused him of homosexuality for writing such a positive article, to which Morris replied, “You assume that anyone who supports the human dignity of homosexuals must be homosexual. Wrong. I support the human dignity of a number of groups to which I don’t belong…”[8] While more students were coming out, even though they were still facing attacks, allies to the LGBTQ+ community were doing so, as well.

Being attacked did not deter Morris’ coverage in the News and Record. A few months later in January of 1993, he reported on the creation of a hotline for gay teens.[9] The group that developed the hotline was Alternative Resources of the Triad (ART), founded in 1988. Brian Riggs, graduate student in the counseling program at UNC Greensboro, wrote the grant to fund the project with the support of Charlie Hawes, Episcopal priest of St. Mary’s House, adjacent to the campus of UNC Greensboro. The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina awarded a small sum to Rigg’s proposal, allowing for the creation of the support resource that was the first of its kind in Greensboro area.[10] With more youth coming out, more support was needed. Although the grant was only for two hundred dollars, funding from a major organization, such as the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, was a major victory. Although personal acceptance of the LGBTQ + community was becoming common in the 1990s, institutional support, even ceremonial in nature, was lacking. UNC Greensboro would not confront this dilemma until forced to do so in 1996.   

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^[1] 1992 also was the year the World Health Organization declassified homosexuality as a mental illness.

^[2] Anubha Anand, “Dialogue with a Homosexual,” The Carolinian, April 16, 1992, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[3] Ibid.

^[4]Ibid.

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] Bill Morris, “Homosexuals Have Family Values, Too - UNCG Sophomore: No Rights in Closet,” Greensboro News and Record (Greensboro, NC), Oct. 13, 1992, p. B1.

^[7] Bill Morris, “Defense of Gays Unpopular with Yahoos - ‘Coming Out Day’ Strikes a Nerve,” Greensboro News and Record (Greensboro, NC), Oct. 22, 1992.

^[8] Ibid.

^[9] The article begins with the sentence, “I hope all you Southern Baptists are paying attention.”

^[10] Bill Morris, “Church Grant to Help Gay Teens Will Create Hot Line,” Greensboro News and Record (Greensboro, NC), Jan. 4, 1993, p. B1.

A Second Look at UNC Greensboro's Response to AIDS in the 1980's

LGBTQ history in the 1980s was dominated by the AIDS epidemic, but there is little information about UNC Greensboro’s students’ perspective of the epidemic. The Carolinian featured an article titled, “AIDS - The Mystery Killer,” surprisingly early in the epidemic’s history, 1983.[1] Major coverage in the student newspaper did not start until 1985, at which time the University of North Carolina system implemented a task force to address AIDS on campus. The number of students on the UNC Greensboro campus who were infected with the disease is unknown, but a 1986 article mentions “There was a case of AIDS detected on campus… and that student ‘had since left.’ Whether the student was asked to leave or left voluntarily was not specified.”[2] It should be noted that to protect the university in the event of potential legal liability, it was advised that if a student living in on-campus housing contracted AIDS, their roommate was to be informed, “preferably by the individual.[3]

The Carolinian, December 11, 1986, page 1

Institutionally, UNC system administration began addressing the AIDS epidemics across campuses beginning in 1985. All heads of universities were sent information published by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, providing basic information about the disease.[4] There is no singling out of gay men in the brochure, just an overview of the virus and how it spreads. One week later, William Friday, President of the UNC system, released an official summary of the Administrative Council accounting their meeting regarding the system’s proposal to address the AIDS epidemic.[5] The Administrative Council proposed the creation of a task force to address the epidemic, comprising representatives from all sixteen UNC campuses. This sixteen member task force was composed of four student health service physicians, four student affairs officials, four attorneys, and four health educators. UNC Greensboro had three representatives on the taskforce.[6] It was deemed by the Council that the primary responsibility of the Infectious Disease Advisory Committee was to develop and disseminate information about the virus and how it spread. The actual handling of AIDS cases on each campus would be the responsibility of the chancellors of each campus, but the system task force would provide expert advice and guidance as necessary.

Student Health Services at UNC Greensboro developed a preliminary policy for dealing with AIDS patients. This included procedures such as “advise the patient of possible social problems, particularly in residence halls, if it is known or rumored that he/she has AIDS” and “suggest that if he/she elects to remain in school that it might be in their best interest to consider residing off campus” due to the social consequences. The policy also clearly stated that AIDS victims (as they were described) would not be barred from classes, from using university facilities, or from public gatherings.[7] There is no mention of homosexuality in the policy.

Through most of the documentation relating to UNC Greensboro’s handling of the AIDS epidemic, there are surprisingly few mentions of homosexuality. Some of the materials acknowledged that the gay men fall into the high risk population for the virus, but emphasizes that,

“... this is not, in any endemic sense, a ‘homosexual disease.’ The disease did first gain a substantial foothold within that segment of our population, and its rapid spread among homosexual men is attributable, among possible factors, to certain sexual practices that constitute particularly efficient means of transmitting the virus. Thus, as in the case of Hepatitis B and Syphilis, AIDS is primarily a sexually transmitted disease, and for all such diseases there is a higher incidence among homosexual members of the population. AIDS has remained relatively confined to the population because its members constitute a relatively closed social and sexual grouping.”[8]

Documents, such as the one quoted above, demonstrated that UNC Greensboro officials wanted to curtail the condemnation of AIDS being a purely homosexual disease, not only simply to provide proper information, but also to avoid “the widespread anxiety that otherwise understandably attends discussion of this highly dangerous disease.”[9] In the handwritten minutes from the presentation of the President’s task force, it is indicated that they needed to “communicate that gay doesn’t = to AIDS… Gays already endure discrimination.[10] UNC Greensboro records indicate that the information released to the public was crafted with great intention to avoid negative incidences from occurring on campus, but the documents relating to what the task force and university officials discussed among themselves differed in tone.

One document titled, “Analysis of AIDS-Related Issues in the University Context,” while not overtly anti-gay, does single out the population. This document was used to guide members of the task force and university officials. One highlighted section reads,

“Viewed in the broadest possible precautionary terms, all members of a high risk group (e.g., homosexual males) ought to assume (in the absence of specific, current and definitive medical evidence to the contrary or in view of a counterindicative personal lifestyle) that they are infected with the AIDS virus, and those contemplating intimate contacts with members of such a group should proceed on the basis of the same assumption. This approach disregards (for purpose of maximizing prophylaxis) the fact that only a minority of homosexual makes in fact have been infected with the AIDS virus.”[11]

The message is clear; AIDS may not be a gay disease, but it is best to treat all gay men as being infected until they are tested. How this assumption played out in interactions with students on campus is unknown. There are no oral histories at present in which gay former-UNC Greensboro students discuss the AIDS epidemic on campus, and for any student who may have undergone testing for the disease, health records are confidential. Tragically, it must be noted also that any student who contracted AIDS during this time would be unlikely to be alive today.

Overall, UNC Greensboro’s response to AIDS in terms of providing information to educate students and staff was respectable, but there is no information as to how the epidemic unfolded on a personal level. There was no measurable form of assessment to judge the effectiveness of the campus’ educational resources.

Also see, "Confronting the AIDS Epidemic at UNCG"

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^[1] Bob Pearson, “AIDS - The Mystery Killer,”  The Carolinian, Nov. 22, 1983, UA42.4.01, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[2] Firdous Bamji, “Senators Sworn in Tuesday,” The Carolinian, Feb. 20, 1986, UA42.4.01. Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[3] [Handwritten Notes from Task Force Meeting],  AIDS Notebook, MS, Office of the Provost Records, UA 3.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[4] Allan W. Ostar, “Memorandum to Presidents & Chancellors of the State Colleges and Universities and Heads of State Systems,” Nov. 13, 1985, AIDS Notebook, MS, Office of the Provost Records, UA 3.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[5] William Friday, “Memorandum to the Chancellors,” Nov. 20, 1985, AIDS Notebook, MS, Office of the Provost Records, 1922-2015, UA 3.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[6] “AIDS Task Force,” MS, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Records, 1937-2015, UA 42.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[7] “UNC-G Student Health Service Preliminary Policy for Dealing with AIDS Patients,” AIDS Notebook, MS, Office of the Provost Records, 1922-2015, UA 3.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[8] “Guidelines for Campus Programs/Policies Re: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome,” AIDS Notebook, MS, Office of the Provost Records, 1922-2015, UA 3.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[9] Dick Robinson, “Memorandum,” Oct.31, 1985, MS, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Records, 1937-2015, UA 42.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[10] “Notes from the Presentation of the President’s Task Force on AIDS,” Feb. 11, 1986, AIDS Notebook, MS, Office of the Provost Records, 1922-2015, UA 3.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

^[11] “Analysis of AIDS-Related Issues in the University Context,” MS, AIDS Notebook, Office of the Provost Records, 1922-2015, UA 3.1, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives and Manuscripts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

Chronicling the Founding of the UNCG LGBT Student Organization (1971-1975)

Carolinian, Oct. 4, 1971 (p.7)

Although our University enjoys the benefits of a culture promoting equality and inclusivity, UNCG’s reputation for embracing diversity as an educational foundation was constructed over decades by student and staff advocacy. Among the more hidden stories of Civil Rights struggles at UNCG is that of the formation of a university-acknowledged student organization for LGBTQ students.

There are few records on the lives and activities of the University’s LGBTQ students, but the first evidence for the need of such an organization on campus can be found as early as 1971. By this time, the university had been reorganized as a co-educational institution, and although there is some evidence of a lesbian student population on campus for several decades (1), discrimination against gay male students provoked the first plea for tolerance in the student newspaper:

Last year it was decided by some members of the fraternity and a few other males that their image was being threatened by the gay men on campus. It was felt that those gay men were becoming too blatant to be tolerated. They had the audacity to be themselves occasionally...

There was some talk among the homosexuals of starting a gay liberation movement here at school. When this “uppity” talk reached the ears of the other men they decided to act. They all got drunk and set about threatening people with violence. (2) 

It would be unlikely that the victims of such bullying would be willing to report threats, as homosexuality was not (and still is not) a protected class of minority by state law. Additionally, as homosexuality was officially classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association during this time, there was no pressure for University officials to investigate such situations.  However, the landscape for gay rights shifted in 1973, when the APA removed homosexuality from the list of diagnosable mental illnesses. It did not take long for LGBTQ students to organize, and by 1974, a “gay political social group” was forming on campus.

In November of 1974, a flier promoting the first meeting of a gay student organization was attached to a bulletin board in the School of Music. This flier was brought to the attention of Jim H. Allen, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Chancellor James S. Ferguson. In a letter to the Office of the UNC System President, Bill Friday, Allen requested for legal advice, asking:

• What are the state statues for dealing with homosexuality?
• What statutory prohibitions, if any, are there regarding the funding of a homosexual organization out of student activity fees?
• May it be argued that to provide meeting space on the campus for a homosexual organization is to provide a form of support through the public revenues…?

In response, David N. Edwards, Jr., Special Assistant to the Office of the President, advised Allen that withholding institutional support from a student organization meeting the necessary requirements would be legally precarious, providing citations from three federal cases in which the court overruled university prohibitions against gay student organizations. Essentially, a gay student organization, with a mission to support its members and to educate the public, does not pose a danger to the campus or inherently violate university regulations. Also, the cases of the federal court overturning the prohibitions of other universities provided the administration of UNCG with legal support in permitting a gay student organization, should dissension arise from formal recognition.

The documentation formally requesting the recognition of the Gay Student Union of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro was submitted and approved in 1979, with Rev. Joe Flora, Presbyterian Pastor for Campus Ministries, as the faculty adviser. The stated mission of the organization was:

• To educate the public about legal, social and personal aspects of homosexuality
• To provide a support system for those in the organization
• To represent the homosexual portion of the student body in matters relevant to homosexual students

The initial meeting of the Gay Student Union occurred in September 25, 1979, but the first meeting as a university-recognized organization occurred one month later, on October 25^th. (3-4) Unfortunately, there is not a record of the founding members of the organization, but the initiative of these students established a network of support for LGBTQ students that has lasted over 30 years.

The Gay Student Union underwent many changes and overcame many obstacles over its history. The organization encountered many challenges through the 1980s well into the 1990s, but the struggles have led to the cultivation of a campus culture of support and advocacy. In fact, the 2012 Homecoming included the first homecoming for UNCG’s LGBTQA Alumni. As stated by attending Alumni, it was their first “homecoming-out.”

(1) Oral history interview with Key L. Barkley, 1991 [OH003]. UNCG Centennial Oral History Project Collection, Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

(2) "The Last Liberation," The Carolinian, October 4, 1971 [UA42.4.01]. Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

(3) "Gay Academic Union Formed," The Carolinian, October 30, 1979 [UA42.4.01]. Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

(4) "Corrections," The Carolinian, November 6, 1979 [UA42.4.01]. Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC, USA.

Off the Record: sharing the story of the LGBTQ+ history of UNCG

University Archives is beginning the celebration of UNC Greensboro's PRIDE Month with the story of our LGBTQ+ history in the words of our current students, alumni, and faculty. In April of 2017, the University Libraries and the Office of Intercultural Engagement sponsored a panel of volunteers, who identify as LGBTQ+. The perspective of the LGBTQ+ history of UNC Greensboro, based upon these panelists, spans from the 1970s until present, elaborating upon the gap-filled evidence represented in the university's historical record.

[This video is closed caption enabled]

This panel, “Off the Record: sharing the story of the LGBTQ+ history of UNCG,” is inspired by the oral history project underway as part of the 125th anniversary of the opening of the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNC Greensboro). With Chancellor Gilliam’s sponsorship, the University Archives of UNC Greensboro Libraries is conducting a two year project (2016-2018) of oral history interviews. This ambitious project hopes to capture oral histories from a wide variety of interviewees with connections to UNC Greensboro, such as faculty, administrators, alumni, staff, and current students.

Of the 19,000 students enrolled at UNC Greensboro (at the time of the panel), the school's Fall 2016 ACHA-National College Health Assessment (NCHA) estimated that 23 percent of these students self-identify as nonheterosexual or nongender-binary.

Panelists: Dane Hansen; Kathleen Williams; James V. Carmichael, Jr.; Jay Poole; Zachary Johnson
Moderator: Stacey Krim

For more information about the LGBTQ+ history of UNC Greensboro, please see:

• Chronicling the Founding of the LGBT Student Organization (1971-1975)
• "Gays Go Home" -- The Strong Hall Protest of 1979
• His Name Was Kenneth Crump
• Fighting to Make a Statement: The Struggle for UNCG's Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Clause
• Dark Shadows, Deep Closets

Fighting to Make a Statement: The Struggle for UNCG's Sexual Orientation Nondiscrimination Clause

68 page nondiscrimination petition with 1045 signatures signed
by UNCG faculty, staff, and students

In a 1992 The Chronicle of Higher Education article about campus climate for faculty, John D’Emilio, a UNCG faculty in the Department of History at the time, stated “I think it safe to say I’m the person on campus who is most openly gay. On a very personal level, it’s fine… But although there is not an overtly hostile climate, there’s not much of a welcoming climate either. Because, if there was, there would be more openly gay faculty members and the University would have certain policies it doesn’t have. There might be courses that don’t exist now. It would be nice to have a faculty and staff group. I don’t think nondiscrimination or benefits policies will be under discussion until a group forms.”[2]

It was not until four years later, in 1996, that the UNCG Faculty Senate would debate the inclusion of a nondiscrimination policy for the campus. Contrary to D’Emilio’s prediction, it was not an LGBTQ+ faculty group that would bring the issue before the faculty and the chancellor (Patricia Sullivan), but three students concerned with the state of equity on the campus. After the unanimous passing of a nondiscrimination clause by the UNCG Student Senate, three lesbian students, Alesha Daughtrey, Jessica Stine, and Mandy Vetter, approached the Faculty Senate in spring of 1996 to approve a similar nondiscrimination statement.[3]  Of the sixteen UNCG campuses, ten already had adopted policies of nondiscrimination against school employees and students by 1996.[4] As UNCG was known to be an LGBTQ+-friendly university, it was thought that the resolution would pass through the Faculty Senate with approval quickly, however, the subject proved to be to be too complex and too volatile to be accepted without conflict.

According to the News and Record, some faculty expressed homophobic apprehensions about what would happen to the University if a policy protected someone based on sexual orientation,

“At least one professor who voted against the measure feared the term ‘sexual orientation’ could be interpreted to include people with deviant sexual habits, such as pedophiles. Another professor said it could force the university to set up a quota system for hiring gays and lesbians” and that the policy was “unjustifiable, unworkable, [and] illegal.”[5]

UNCG Faculty Senate Chair, Charles Tisdale, who was reported as one of the few faculty members voting in support of a nondiscrimination policy, responded to such remarks, saying, “Nobody wants to face the moral issue, so they use the legal issue as a smoke screen.”[6]

Certainly, the potential legal ramifications of adopting a nondiscrimination policy based on sexual orientation, as described by the University Counsel of the time Lucien Capone III, were substantial. In a letter to Charles Tisdale, Capone states, “I want to reiterate at the outset that I personally support the notion that we ought not discriminate against anyone simply because of his or her sexual orientation. Rather, my concern is for the unintended consequences that may result if we attempt to formalize the philosophy into legally enforceable policies.”[7] There were two legal arguments brought to attention. One of the consequences Capone foresaw was that if the university created a policy protecting a classification of people not recognized by federal or state statutes, other groups with non-protected status could demand special treatment by UNCG.[8] At the Faculty Senate hearing for a nondiscrimination policy, Capone mentioned that the elevation of a non-protected group, such as one based on sexual orientation, might lead to such groups as “the KKK, skinheads, Nazis” or even smokers petitioning for special protection on campus.[9]  

Additionally, Capone argued that setting a policy protecting people based on sexual orientation may result in the University having to offer domestic partnership benefits. As gay and lesbian marriage was illegal at the time, University Counsel feared having a sexual orientation nondiscrimination policy would force UNCG to offer spousal benefits to “domestic partnerships [which] have no legal status leaving the University in a nether world of practically unanswerable questions.”[10]

When asked about Capone’s legal concerns relating to the implementation of a nondiscrimination policy, UNC System legal counsel, Richard Robinson, felt the arguments were alarmist. In relation to the potential for a gay and lesbian hiring quota, UNC Counsel argued that a nondiscrimination policy is not the same as an affirmative action policy, posing no threat to interfering with faculty recruitment. Robinson maintained that although any given group may ask for special treatment from a faculty senate or chancellor, no college or university could be forced to accept a policy for a non-state or federally protected group. Finally, on the subject of partnership benefits, “That kind of benefit-sharing is based on marital status, and as long as state law limits that kind to spouses then that really takes it off the screen.”[11]

After two failed votes by the UNCG Faculty Senate, James V. Carmichael Jr., Professor in the Library and Information Studies Department and member of the Equal Opportunity – Intergroup Relations Committee, presented the revised proposal for a non-legally binding anti-discrimination statement to UNCG Faculty Senate on November 2, 1996. Carmichael provided remarks in the stead of Novem Mason, Chair of the Committee, as Mason and Carmichael agreed that it was appropriate, “since I [Carmichael] am a gay faculty member… who called this perhaps the most significant even in the history of the university over the past 20 years.”[12] Carmichael, one of the few “out” faculty at UNCG at the time noted in his remarks,

“While I am tenured, I know many faculty members who still feel threatened… For these individuals, silence and assimilation represent the better part of wisdom, and perhaps they are right… But stoicism has its perils, too… I urge the Senate to pass this proposed statement not only for the self-interest of a largely invisible minority, but so that this university may go on record as a leader in sensitivity to human rights. Given our history as a women’s institution, we should foster tolerance with adamant conviction.”[13]

Supporting Carmichael’s remarks, Joy Brown, an undergraduate student in the Department of Social Work, provided remarks and presented a sixty-eight page petition with 1045 signatures of UNCG faculty, staff, and students who supported the resolution. Brown was moved to begin this petition process after reading a News and Record article about the debacle, being, “shocked and embarrassed that the university that I take so much pride in would turn its back on guaranteeing the rights of some of its students.”[14]

After two previous attempts, a statement of nondiscrimination was voted in favor of unanimously by the Faculty Senate. It was approved by Chancellor Sullivan by the end of November 1996. Regarding this non-binding statement, Seth Tezyk, head of UNCG’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Student Association remarked, “I think it was a relief to pass it and say, ‘OK, let’s get our foot in the door.”[15] The nondiscrimination statement stands today, unchanged from its 1996 introduction, though state and federal conditions have changed for the LGBTQ+ communities. The North Carolina state health plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield began offering coverage for same-sex couples and all domestic partners as of 2014, and on June 26, 2015 the US Supreme Court ruled gay marriage was constitutionally protected, affording the potential for additional spousal benefits to the UNCG community. With the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Movement has made definitive progress, far beyond the putting “our foot in the door” of 1996.         

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[1] Tarm, Michael. “Gay rights organizations hail court ruling as ‘game changer’.” AP News, 5 April, 2017, https://apnews.com/1250634e4f434d2ca02a0f8f1674e624. Accessed 5 April, 2017.

[2] Mooney, Carolyn J. “Gay men and lesbians talk about campus climate.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 Sept. 1992, p. A19.

[3] Carmichael, James V. Remarks by James V. Carmichael (Former Member, Equal Opportunity/Intergroup Relations Committee), November 6, 1996, p.1.

[4] The nondiscrimination policies across the ten institution were difference in format and none were legally binding. Six of the schools had policies/statements implemented by their Faculty Senate and four with a Chancellor’s statement.

Myers, Jane. "Memorandum: Resolution for Revision of UNCG's Non Discriminatory Policies and Practices." Letter to Charles Tisdale. 27 Sept. 1996. MS. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina. (from UNCG Archives Sexual Orientation Subject file)

[5] McMurtrie, Beth. “UNCG balks at sex-orientation policy.” Greensboro News and Record, 6 Oct. 1996, p. B1.

[6] Ibid,

[7] Capone, Lucien III. "Sexual Orientation Discrimination." Letter to Charles Tisdale. 27 Sept. 1996. MS. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, p. 1 (from UNCG Archives Sexual Orientation Subject File)

[8] Capone, Lucien III. "Sexual Orientation Discrimination." Letter to Charles Tisdale. 27 Sept. 1996. MS. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, p. 3 (from UNCG Archives Sexual Orientation Subject File)

[9] McMurtrie, Beth. “UNCG balks at sex-orientation policy.” Greensboro News and Record, 6 Oct. 1996, p. B1.

[10] Capone, Lucien III. "Sexual Orientation Discrimination." Letter to Charles Tisdale. 27 Sept. 1996. MS. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, p. 3 (from UNCG Archives Sexual Orientation Subject File)

[11] McMurtrie, Beth. “UNCG balks at sex-orientation policy.” Greensboro News and Record, 6 Oct. 1996, p. B1.

[12] Carmichael, James V. Remarks by James V. Carmichael (Former Member, Equal Opportunity/Intergroup Relations Committee), November 6, 1996, p.1.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Brown, Joy. “[Remarks], November 6, 1996, p.1

[15] Associated Press. “Not binding in hiring; UNCG senate backs homosexual rights.” Star-News (Wilmington, NC), 8 Nov. 1996, p.6B.