Queer History at KU

The group began as the Lawrence Gay Liberation front in the summer of 1970, about a year after the June 1969 Stonewall riots in New York ignited the modern Gay Rights movement.

According to an article in the Fall 1991 GALA Update (a KU LBGT alumni newsletter) by Michael Nelson and Charles Dedmon: "Unattached groups of gay people existed who were interested in forming a local Gay Liberation Front. A social work student, working on a paper about alternative lifestyles, became the inadvertent founder of GLF when one of his interviewees tacked up multiple messages around campus at strategic places on campus frequented by gay men with the social work student's name and phone number."

- David H. Stout (Founder) (BSW 1973 / MSW 1976)

Despite sporadic struggles with the administration and some students, the organization has survived and thrived. As it enters its fourth decade, Queers & Allies continues to offer support for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgendered people and their friends, and to advocate positive change in the Lawrence community. 

For an overview, read a brief history of Q&A or read the three-part 30 year history below. You can also find this information on Wikipedia*.

History of Q&A

• The Early Years - Gay Liberation Front
• The 1970s - Gay Services of Kansas
• The 1980s - Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas

Historical Documents

• The Gay Community (from a Position Paper) - Lawrence Gay Liberation, Inc., c. 1970
• Gary - from the Gay Oread Daily, October 29, 1971
• Emergency Position Paper - Gay Liberation Front, April 1972
• What’s with this word “queer,” anyway? - From Vanguard, September 1997

* The following articles listed may be used at Wikipedia under the GFDL