SPRING 2023: Out on Campus: A History of LGBTQ+ Activism at Pennsylvania Colleges and Universities

A new traveling exhibit, Out on Campus: A History of LGBTQ+ Activism at Pennsylvania Colleges and Universities, will be displayed on March 20 – April 7 on the First Floor of Skillman Library.

This exhibit presents the stories of the formation of some of the earliest LGBTQ+ student organizations and activism at colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, as well as experiences and personal stories of being openly LGBTQ+ on campus.

The exhibit is a collaborative project of the Pennsylvania LGBT History Network, with the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project serving as the managing partner and is hosted by the Lafayette Libraries in collaboration with Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program.

Historical consultant for the exhibit and author of its introduction, Dr. Marc R. Stein, Pasker Professor of History, San Francisco State University, will present a lecture, “Students, Sodomy, and the State: LGBT Campus Struggles in the 1970s” on March 21st at 7pm in Kirby 104.

In this lecture, nationally recognized historian of LGBTQ activism Marc Stein offers a close look at the organizational and legal dynamics of early LGBTQ student activism in the US. Stein explores how new gay student groups battled for recognition in the 1970s and analyzes the various tactics they used to secure recognition by their institutions. Stein will also discuss his work on the “Out on Campus” exhibit (on display in Skillman Library March 20 – April 7, 2023) and the recent growth of projects that queer the history.