Gay Students Association

Founded: 19771 (as Gay Student Support Group), became Gay Students Association in 19792

Recognized by COSO: July 1978 (as Gay Student Support Group)3

Contents

Activities

The GSA used COSO funds to “bring in speakers and sponsor lecturers,” but never “to sponsor social events,” according to a GSA member in October 1981. 4 However, they did hold social events, which “attract[ed] ‘people from all over the place,'” even people who were otherwise unwilling to out themselves by going to GSA meetings.5

A May 1983 article in The Dartmouth mentions that the GSA published both a weekly newsletter and a quarterly “news capsule.”6

Activism and Accomplishments

Over several years, the GSA held a “Gay Blue Jeans Day,” designating one day on which students could show their support for gay rights by wearing blue jeans. According to the 1983 secretary of the GSA, John Cannon ’83, “The idea is to make it inconvenient to be homophobic…[It’s] an innocuous way to show support for gay rights. You could do it by accident if you don’t watch out.”7

The GSA, through “complaints to the dean’s office,” convinced the College to add protections for gay students to the Student Grievance Procedure.8 This protected current students, but it did not protect applicants for admission or employment, so the GSA kept advocating for broader protections in the Equal Opportunity statement.9 The Board of Trustees finally agreed to add “sexual orientation” to the College’s Equal Opportunity statement for students in November 1984,10 and in 1986, they adopted a clause extending these protections to applicants.11

A photo of the Equal Opportunity statement in the student handbook, which lists sexual orientation.
The 1984-85 student handbook was the first to include “sexual orientation” in the Equal Opportunity statement.12

Notes

  1. Tony Shuga, “Gay Student Group Forming,” The Dartmouth (Hanover, NH), November 17, 1977, 1. ↩
  2. Dee Johnson, Dee Johnson to Edward Shanahan, June 27, 1984, Homosexuality, Vertical Files, Rauner Special Collections Library. ↩
  3. Helen Davis, “Gay Students Form Campus Support Group,” The Dartmouth (Hanover, NH), August? 1978, 5. ↩
  4. Marie Center, “Gays at the College Are Struggling to Establish Greater Unity Within a Sometimes Hostile Environment,” The Dartmouth Weekend Magazine, October 23, 1981, 18, Boulding, Elise, Affiliates Files, Rauner Special Collections Library. ↩
  5. Center, “Gays at the College.” ↩
  6. Mark Weiss, “Garling, Cannon Lead GSA Campaign for Gay Rights,” The Dartmouth (Hanover, NH), May 3, 1983, Homosexuality, Vertical Files, Rauner Special Collections Library. ↩
  7. Weiss, “Garling, Cannon Lead GSA Campaign.” ↩
  8. Dinesh D’Souza, “Profiles on Homosexuality at Dartmouth,” Dartmouth Review (Hanover, NH), May 18, 1981, 8, Homosexuality, Vertical Files, Rauner Special Collections Library. ↩
  9. Weiss. ↩
  10. Allen A. Drexel, “Degrees of Broken Silence: Dartmouth Man, Gay Men, and Women, 1935-1991,” honors thesis, Dartmouth College, 1991, 93, REF LD1441.D74 1991. Rauner Special Collections Library. ↩
  11. Drexel, “Degrees of Broken Silence,” 96. ↩
  12. Student Handbook: 1984-1985, Dartmouth College, Ref LD1429 .A25, Rauner Special Collections Library. ↩