Coming Into Maturity

This fall the UNC LGBTIQ community brought a new smile to the mix - Anthony Reid, a graduate student in the UNC UNC's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender - Straight Alliance is about to enter its third year. GLBT-SA isn't' the first LGBTIQ organization on campus. In fact, UNC has a long history of clubs that serve the LGBTIQ community.

In the mid-1970s, the Carolina Gay Association, which evolved into the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association in the 1980s, was a major LGBTIQ presence on campus for many years.

In 1998, the Queer Network for Change was born; however, because of the negative connotations surrounding the word "queer" that the time and its unwillingness to seek out straight allies, the group only saw floundering success.

The GLBT-SA was conceived in Pamela Conover's Politics of Sexuality class in the spring of 2002 by straight ally Alice Newton.

"I never felt comfortable at QNC meetings," says Newton, who graduated last year.

She, along with several of her LGBTIQ friends, including current GLBT-SA Unity Conference Director Trevor Hoppe, wanted to form an organization that brought the straight and LGBTIQ communities together.

Since its inception, the general body has become more and more the driving force behind the GLBT-SA. Business meetings aren o longer held in secret, as they originally were, and general body members have become more active in planning events like Coming Out Week.

Last year the club suffered from organizational problems and took a month-long hiatus, but it returned stronger than ever in Spring 2004. The club revitalized LAMBDA, the oldest student-run LGBTIQ magazine in the nation, and formed an activist organization, the Committee for a Queerer Carolina.

"This year the GLBT-SA is coming into maturity," says Hoppe, citing the production of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and the strong interest from students of all ages as a sign of the club's progress.