GSA:A Brief History
In 1994, the Gay Straight Alliance was first formed as the Lambda Alliance by Matt, a student here at UMD, and Randy Dillard, a previous faculty member. In 1995, there were others joining the organization, but eventually it died out again. Fast forward to 1999, Dennis found the formant Lambda Alliance and revived it.
Until 2006, there was a wave-like set of motions of activism and dormant periods as people graduated or weren't interested in the organization. Dennis at this point renamed the Lambda Alliance to the Gay Straight Alliance, hoping to increase campus visibility for LGBTQ students. However, the tides were once again against him as the organization slowly faded.
In March of 2007 Dennis had enough of weak attendance and lukewarm interest. Low interest leads to a period of dormancy where people only got together on the forum or small meetings. However, in the end of 2007 the GSA had a major turn of interest when Voirin Depanhailluxe and Patricia Foucher got together and became the new co-presidents of the organization. Furthermore, Professor Linda Rapp became the GSA's faculty advisor.
In the fall semester of 2007, the group grew as Professor Rapp chalked boards and got attendance to a then all-time high. Arguments over the politics of the group slowed progress however, and leadership needed to be changed. In December of 2007, Tom Wesley joined the GSA and quickly became active. He rewrote the constitution that was poorly adapted from a previous Lambda Alliance constitution that did not address the issues of 2007.
Soon, Tom and Pat would become co-presidents, and new work was put into the GSA. The website was redone, programming increased and group size swelled to over twenty members. The GSA became active in the Women's Resource Center with SAFE training, HIV/AIDS awareness day, and national LGBTQ holidays. By the end of the Winter '07 semester, the GSA had effectively become revamped with new goals and high hopes.
In 2008, the GSA did not stall in getting activism underway. The GSA hosted a successful game night, SAFE trainings, movie nights, coffee socials, HIV/AIDS testing, passed out condoms and sexual health information, hosted Dr. Kofi Adoma (Dr. Amorie Robinson) in a large speaking event, worked with a host of organizations and stepped forward as an amazing organization. In the end, the GSA was nominated for Outstanding Student Organization, and Tom was awarded the Distinguished Student Leader Award from the Student Activities Office as well as the OUTstanding Student Leader Award from the Spectrum Center at the University of Ann Arbor.
In the 2009-2010 year, we hope to build on our success by crossing campus borders and getting involved across metropolitan Detroit. We will continue to grow, but we still need you! See you soon!