Current VCU faculty and students who have been exploring this dramatic episode will tell the story of what prompted a lawsuit against VCU’s Board of Visitors, and the twists and turns leading to eventual victory in 1976. A panel of alumni, including the first two spokespeople for the Gay Alliance of Students, will then share their memories of that struggle and of life for LGBTQ students in the '70s.

The discussion will be followed by a lunch reception and then the 2016 Burnside/Watstein LGBTQ Awards Ceremony at 3 p.m. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

This event is part of a celebration of 40 years of LGBTQ activism at VCU. Forty years ago VCU's first LGBTQ student group, the Gay Alliance of Students, secured official recognition as a student organization following a two year legal struggle. This year we celebrate that victory, which coincided with the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, as an important milestone on the path toward inclusion and acceptance for LGBTQ students, staff, and faculty at VCU. This Humanities Research Center speaker series examines the 1974-76 struggle at VCU and puts that local history into a broader national context.