Gay Students in the 1980s

Only 47 universities bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (as does only one state, Wisconsin). Admittedly, lesbian and gay studies are offered at about 30 schools, and there are nearly 300 lesbian and gay student organizations. But many of these groups function under a cloud of controversy, and most exist without the official recognition necessary for office space and funds (Bendet 1986).

Its frankness, even more than its extraordinary range of services and education programs, is what sets the Columbia Gay Health Advocacy Project apart from other campus AIDS organizations. Few of its counterparts elsewhere would dare say they exist chiefly to serve the medical and emotional needs of homosexual students and employees. Fewer still would admit to having any kind of political agenda--much less an agenda that unflinchingly links improving the health of gay students with fighting homophobia. "We're very overtly political, in a way," says Laura Pinsky, the three-year-old proje

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run by and for homosexuals, with a curriculum divided between academics and personal growth (Sievert 1974). By 1978, however, Gonzales could view campus activism from a perspective reaching "beyond feminism." Vellela's 1988 survey of student political activism in the 1980s and 1990s includes a retrospective look at the emergence of women's issues, gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights, student empowerment, and the role of the media, and a predictive look at the future of activism which includes the expectation that issues of sexuality will continue to excite advocacy and opposition to the year 2000. In the event, the institutions were not to be disappointed in their expectations that sexuality would become a flashpoint of campus concern. As advocacy and service organizations for gay and lesbian students began to appear on campuses, however, they and their activities met resistance from school administrators and general student populations. This led to a series of disputes, a number of which were resolved in court and which set legal precedent for granting standing to these organizations. In a case known as Gay Students Organization (GSO) v. Bonner (1974), the First Amendment was invoked to enjoin the University of New Hampshire from
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