Creating Change: Forty Years of LGBT Activism at the University of Oregon
A new exhibit at the Eugene airport showcases the history of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) life on the UO campus and is entitled “Creating Change: Forty Years of LGBT Activism at the University of Oregon.” This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Standing Committee on LGBT Concerns, and this exhibit is one part of the University’s commemoration of the event.
Did you know… a UO student group, the Gay People’s Alliance, was the very first gay student group founded at any college or university on the West Coast.
The documented history of LGBT life on campus started in 1969 with the creation of a student group, the Gay People’s Alliance. Years later, an atmosphere of homophobia on campus led to discrimination that was eventually addressed by the task force established by President Myles Brand in 1989. The president’s task force was charged with analyzing the degree to which discrimination based on sexual orientation existed on the university campus and, consequently, the way in which it negatively affected the academic or professional lives of students, faculty and staff. The Task Force was also charged with creating a plan to reduce or eliminate intolerance, insensitivity, and discrimination against gays and lesbians on the campus, and to create a more accepting environment.
The exhibit includes a copy of the presidential Task Force, as well as images from the student yearbook Oregana, posters, photographs, reports, ephemera, and artifacts. A detailed timeline is included in the display which chronicles the history of LGBT history on the UO campus.
You can see this exhibit through the end of October, on the first floor by the baggage claim, across from the car rental counter.
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