by Deeps Ilango, Class of 2022, Government and American Studies
The three news clips below reveal the history of the fight by the Cornell University Student Assembly – specifically LGBTQ+ Representative Jose Barrios – to create better living conditions for queer students on campus….Continue Reading The Fight for an LGBTQ Living Center
by Kayla Koroma, Class of 2022, Human Development
In 1998, a poster from Cornell’s LGBT Resource Center was hung up in Annabel Taylor Hall to promote “Coming Out Week.” A day later, it was vandalized with the message, “Don’t Spread AIDS to Children and the Poor.” The incident took place four years after the Resource Center was first established in 1994. This was not an isolated event….Continue Reading Documenting Hate on Campus
by Sahana Shridhar, Class of 2022, Industrial and Labor Relations
These photographs were taken during the AIDS Memorial Quilt display in Washington, D.C., during October of 1996. The first photograph includes a patch of the quilt that states “students, faculty, alumni, staff, you are remembered, Cornell University” with a painting of the Clock Tower on the patch as well….Continue Reading A Cornell Patch in the AIDS Memorial Quilt
by Daniela Wise-Rojas, Class of 2025
These photographs and records from the early 1990s document graffiti found on Cornell’s campus -created by members of Cornell’s Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Coalition. They also reveal a growing student body that prioritized the well-being of LGBTQ students on campus over keeping Cornell’s campus free of controversy. …Continue Reading Claiming Power with Gaypril Graffiti
by James Riccio, Class of 2022, Finance and Art History
Cornell AIDS Action was spearheaded by Sharon J. Dittman, the Sexuality and AIDS educator on Cornell’s campus from 1987 to 1990. The purpose of Cornell AIDS Action (1990-1992) was to spread awareness of the deadly disease which became widespread during the mid to late 1980s, especially amongst the LGBTQ+ community.
by Ally Knapp, Class of 2024, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Organized by professor emeritus Ari Van Tienhoven, Cornell’s course “AIDS and Society/Biology and Society 451” was taught for the first time in 1989. The class was designed to discuss the AIDS epidemic and the myriad of problems and controversies that surrounded the issue as well as the consequences of not fully understanding the disease. …Continue Reading AIDS Awareness Week, 1989
by Bella Somoza, Class of 2022, Biological Sciences and History
In April of 1984, Cornell University’s Lesbian and Gay Political Action and Discussion Group (LAGPAD, founded 1984) circulated a survey around Cornell’s queer community in an effort to document acts of homophobia on campus….Continue Reading A Homophobia Survey
by Grace Tran, Class of 2022, Art History and the College Scholar Program
The images below provide a short excerpt from the Cornell University LGBT Coalition office logbook which was kept from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. The author of this particular entry, Roya Hamadani, was an upperclassman at the time and writes about her role within the LGBT Coalition, her sexuality, and her hopes and dreams for the future of the organization.
…Continue Reading Roya Hamadani Plans a Movement
by Rohit Agrawal, Class of 2023, Human Development
Jose Barrios, a senior and gay/lesbian/bisexual liaison at-large, delivered the speech below in March of 1993. He delivered it at the final Cornell Student Assembly meeting regarding the creation of a Gay Living and Learning Unit….Continue Reading Jose Barrios Calls for a Gay Living and Learning Unit
by Andy Colpitts, PhD Student in Performing and Media Arts
Beginning on July 1, 1994, gay and lesbian faculty and staff at Cornell were able to extend their employee benefits to their same-sex partners and their children by signing a simple sheet of paper. The “Statement of Same-Sex Partnership” was the crux of Cornell’s new policy that sought to extend equity to queer faculty and staff who were in relationships “akin to marriage.”…Continue Reading Advocating for Same-Sex Partnerships
by Travis Covitz, Class of 2022, Animal Science
In January of 1998, Pauline Layton wrote “A Personal History in the Bi-Gender Mode,” a 26-page essay on the varied relationship she had to gender since her childhood. One of the key points in her androgynous gender journey was the time spent at Cornell as a member of the new Student Homophile League. Layton was one of the first students to join not because they were in the social circle of founder Jerry Moldenhauer, but because of the public meetings the SHL started.
…Continue Reading “A Personal History in the Bi-Gender Mode”
by Claudia León, Class of 2023, American Studies & Latino Studies/History
This is a promotional poster for Gays, Bisexuals, and Lesbians of Color (GBLOC)’s Conference, which took place over April 11-13, 1986. It lists six guest speakers: Merle Woo, Gil Gerald, Barbara Smith, Don Kao, Joe Beam, and Margarita Lopez. These were queer writers, activists, and organizers of color who GBLOC members read, studied, and looked up to.
…Continue Reading Cornell’s First LGBTQ Student of Color Conference
by Alex Myers, Class of 2023, Philosophy and Psychology
The flyer below was created by the Cornell AIDS Education Program in the late 1980s. As one of many that were distributed across campus, it details some of the ways in which the program worked to achieve its goals of shaping university AIDS policy and providing education about AIDS and safe sex to students. …Continue Reading “AIDS Education at Cornell: Helping to Make Your World Safer”
by Olivia VF Chaudhury, MA student in Historic Preservation Planning
These photographs were taken at the 1982 annual Gay Picnic at Stewart Park, hosted by Gay People at Cornell (GAYPAC). The first photograph shows several men socializing at the picnic, one with his arm around another. A woman is shown seated in the background.
…Continue Reading An Annual Gay Picnic at Stewart Park
by Jeff Iovannone, MA student in Historic Planning Preservation
These black-and-white photocopied flyers, that depict multiracial queer couples kissing, were distributed to publicize Queer Nation Ithaca’s 1992 Valentine’s Day rally and kiss-in….Continue Reading Celebrating Valentine’s Day with a Queer Kiss-in
by Mashka Sutton, Class of 2022, Government and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Zaps were a key part of queer activism and organizing at Cornell in the 1970s through the 1990s. These zap workshops usually involved two women and two men from GAYPAC speaking to a group about homosexuality and dispelling myths about it….Continue Reading “When You Meet A Lesbian Person”: Zap Workshops