Dances, Lawsuits, and the Struggle for LGBTQ College Student Rights in the Deep South

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Contesting Perceived "Standards"

Abstract

This paper offers a history of the Committee on Gay Education's (CGE) efforts to form and exist at the University of Georgia in the early 1970s. Due to hostility from university administrators, CGE members resorted to legal action to ensure that their organization and its events could operate. Eventually, a federal judge published a judicial opinion in favor of the CGE, the first of several positive rulings on behalf of LGBTQ student organizations from the early 1970s through the mid 1990s. This study is based on over 1,000 pages of primary sources, including those from the University of Georgia’s Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the LGBT Resource Center Records, the National Archives, and local, state, and alternative newspapers.

Authors

• Timothy Reese Cain, University of Georgia - Athens

• Michael S. Hevel, University of Arkansas