This past school year has brought a tremendous amount of change to our country. At its beginning, when we were just first realizing the amazing import of the Lawrence v. Texas “sodomy” ruling, we were happily surprised again with the ruling of Massachusetts’s highest court. They ruled that marriage equality is the right of all couples – different-gender as well as same-gender. And just when we thought things would settle down, one homophobic State of the Union address prompted a young, Catholic mayor in San Francisco to declare that it was his constitutional duty to grant marriage licenses to same-gender couples. Nearly 4,000 same-gender marriages later, a chain of events has begun that cannot be stopped. This singular courageous act of one man will go down in history as a highlight of the civil rights movement for LGBTIQ citizens.

Around the same time that all this was happening, students on this campus organized to write and plan for the first issue of LAMBDA since 2001. After this brief hiatus of just over three years, a new and enthusiastic staff produced an issue that followed neatly in the line of LAMBDA’s 28-year tradition. LAMBDA boasted a color cover, an enhanced layout and 12 articles that had the campus talking about everything from same-gender marriage developments to UNC’s new Program in Sexuality Studies.

The staff was united behind the vision of what LAMBDA could be: a progressive outlet for news, analysis, opinion and dialogue. We felt strongly that to be LGBTIQ-affirming meant also being feminist, anti-racist and historically conscious. We continue to be united in our pursuit of social justice for all people. And this pursuit begins right here on campus.

As Alex Ferrando, one of the new co-chairpersons of the GLBT-SA, intimates in his interview with us on page 10, two pressing debates exist on this campus right now: the University’s poor sexual orientation policy publicity and the University’s inadequate response to homophobia in the classroom.

You’ll notice that this issue has two covers. This was done to bring special attention to both of these pressing matters. But besides these, this issue of LAMBDA reports on everything from the highly successful drag show to our tangles with other campus publications.

LAMBDA has been and always will be a point from which to begin conversations about

LGBTIQ issues. So we hope you will take what you read on the following pages and respond – to the campus community, to your community and to us (lambda@unc.edu). We and the world look forward to hearing from you. And if you truly want to effect change through the written word, LAMBDA is always looking for dedicated writers and staff.