VCU to honor LGBTQ+ student group it fought in court
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VCU will unveil a historical marker next month to commemorate its first LGBTQ+ student organization — 50 years after the group won a landmark court ruling forcing the school to recognize it.
Why it matters: Today, the school is celebrating the half-century anniversary of a two-year court battle it lost, VCU announced last month.
Flashback: In September 1974, a group of VCU students formed the Gay Alliance of Students and applied for recognition as an official student organization.
- Their application was rejected by the Board of Visitors (a 7-2 vote), which argued that recognizing the group would "tend to attract other homosexuals to the University," according to a VCU Libraries collection dedicated to the group.
- By 1974, VCU, which was founded just six years earlier, had approved 144 student groups. The Gay Alliance was the first and only group to be denied.
- The students sued and fought the decision — at one point holding a dance to help pay their legal bills, per VCU archives — before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in their favor in October 1976.
Fun fact: That 1976 court ruling also created protections for every LGBTQ+ student organization in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia, according to the university.
What they're saying: "We made a difference, and I am extremely proud of that," Walter Foery, one of the founding Gay Alliance of Students members, told VCU in a statement.
If you go: The historical marker — one of 11 Virginia Department of Historic Resources approved this year — will be unveiled at 9am on Oct. 16 on the lawn between the student commons and Temple Building.
- An LGBTQIA+ campus history walking tour and gala will follow.