Gay Academic Union

The Gay Academic Union (GAU) was a group of LGBT academics who aimed at making the academia more amenable to the LGBT community.[1][2] It was formed in April 1973, just four years after the Stonewall riots,[3], held 4 yearly conferences (the last in November, 1976) and conducted other scholarly activities. It disbanded some time after that.[4]

History

Members included Martin Duberman,[5] Bertha Harris, Karla Jay, John D'Emilio, Jonathan Ned Katz, Barbara Gittings,[4] George Whitmore, Andrea Dworkin, Dawn M. Atkins. They held their first conference on November 23 and 24, 1973, at the City University of New York in New York City.[4]

Martin Duberman remembers that lesbians were often discriminated against by other white male homosexuals.[6] He recalls an argument with George Whitmore.[6]

By 1975, many radicals had left the group and conferences were moved to Los Angeles, although Wayne Dynes and others stayed in New York.[4] The 1976 conference, however, was held at Columbia University in New York City: http://www.rainbowhistory.org/GAU41976.pdf.

References

  1. ^ John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1998, p. xi [1]
  2. ^ Dawn M. Atkins, Looking Queer: Body Image and Identity in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Communities, Haworth Press, 1998, p. 407 [2]
  3. ^ Susan Talburt, Subject to Identity: Knowledge, Sexuality, and Academic Practices in Higher Education, New York: State University of New York Press, 2000, p. 4 [3]
  4. ^ a b c d Jeffrey Escoffier, 'Generations and Paradigms: Mainstreams in Lesbian and Gay Studies', in Gay and Lesbian Studies, Henry L. Minton (ed), Harrington Park Press, 1993, pp. 13-14 [4]
  5. ^ A.M. Wentik, 'Duberman, Martin Baulm', in Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, Robert Aldrich (ed.), Garry Wotherspoon (ed.), New York: Routledge, 2001, p. 116 [5]
  6. ^ a b Martin Duberman, Left Out: The Politics of Exclusion - Essays 1964-2002, South End Press, 2002, pp. 269-285 [6]