2012 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Standing Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Concerns at the University of Oregon. The standing committee was initially formed as a recommendation of a task force in the late 1980s to enhance the quality of life on campus for lesbians and gay men, and for the university community as a whole. To celebrate this anniversary, along with more than forty years of grassroots activism, this exhibit was prepared to illuminate the rich history of LGBT life and culture at the University of Oregon. Our history can be characterized as a long and sustained struggle to obtain equal rights and protection.
During the 1960s and 1970s, issues concerning gay men and lesbians were at the forefront of many discussions, and the UO’s history follows this national trend, which tends not to address bisexual and transgender identities and experiences explicitly until much later.
The rights of gay men and lesbians were first publicly, if only obliquely, acknowledged in 1971 when the UO faculty adopted a resolution stating that university policy would provide equal employment opportunities for all individuals based solely on professional or technical qualifications and merit, without regard to sex, race, color, creed, religion, political beliefs, national origin, or any other “extraneous considerations.” “Sexual orientation” eventually replaced “extraneous considerations” in the late 1970s, and the university began to implement policies to safeguard the lives of gay and lesbian members of the UO community.
Unfortunately, these policies did not equate to freedom from discrimination and harassment, nor lead to an atmosphere of acceptance. The norms that were prevalent on the UO campus paralleled a wider attitude in Oregon embodied by the Oregon Citizens Alliance’s Measure 8. Measure 8 was a successful initiative, narrowly passed by the voters in 1988, that repealed Governor Neil Goldschmidt’s executive order, which banned discrimination based on sexual orientation. The measure also put a statute on the books that prohibited any job protection for gay people in state government. (Measure 8 was eventually struck down by the Oregon Court of Appeals in 1992.)
It is our hope that as we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Standing Committee on LGBT Concerns at the University of Oregon, and more than forty years of grassroots activism, this exhibit will provide the viewer with a heightened awareness of the richness of LGBT life on the UO campus and the significance of the groundbreaking advances made to improve the campus climate for LGBT students, faculty, and staff.
Please contact Linda Long, Exhibit Curator and Manuscripts Librarian, or Special Collections & University Archives with any questions about Creating Change.
