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 […]
Category: LGBTQA
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
68 page nondiscrimination petition with 1045 signatures signedby 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. […]
