Gay liberation to campus assimilation: early non-heterosexual student organizing at midwestern universities

Collegiate organisations were vitally important to establishing a public presence as well as a social consciousness in the last quarter of the 20th century.

During this time, lesbian & gay students struggled for recognition on campuses while forging a community that vacillated between fitting into campus life & deconstructing the sexist & heterosexist constructs upon which campus life rested.

The first openly gay & lesbian student body presidents in the United States were elected during this time period, at Midwestern universities; at the same time, pioneering non-heterosexual students faced criticism, condemnation & violence on campus.

Drawing upon interviews, reviews of campus newspapers & yearbooks, Patrick Dilley demonstrates how the early gay campus groups created & provided educational & support services on campus-efforts that later became incorporated into campus services across the nation.