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Homecoming 2014

We look forward to welcoming everyone back to campus this weekend for Homecoming! A complete schedule of events is provided below.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17

John Boswell Memorial Lecture: Sexuality and the Policing of the Family, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m., Blow Memorial Hall Room 201 (Free)

This year’s speaker is Daniel Rivers, Professor of History at The Ohio State University and a historian of LGBT communities in the 20^th Century, Native American history, the family and sexuality, and U.S. social protest movements. His book, Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States since WWII, was published to critical acclaim last year. A reception will follow.

Sunset Ceremony, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m., Wren Courtyard (Free)

Members of GALA are encouraged to attend the annual Sunset Ceremony, a time of reflection to honor alumni who have passed away during the preceding year.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18

William & Mary GALA Foundation Brunch, 9:30 – 11:00 a.m., Wren Hall ($75)

Join us for a light breakfast and refreshments in the Great Hall of the Wren Building. Proceeds benefit the William & Mary GALA Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) organization that supports LGBT projects and philanthropy at the College. Contact Wayne Curtis ’82 (waynecurt_at_aol.com) to RSVP and for payment details.

Homecoming Tailgate Party, Noon, Sunken Gardens ($15)

GALA will have space at the Alumni Association’s Tailgate Party, giving us an opportunity to mingle with students and faculty and enjoy an October day in the Sunken Gardens.

Annual GALA Reception, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m., Tucker Hall Foyer (Free)

Join GALA in between reunion events for an evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and intimate conversation in the center of old campus. We will hold a short program highlighting this year’s achievements and the work of LGBT student organizations. Students, faculty, and friends are welcome to attend!

REGISTRATION: Register for all events here. Be sure to select “GALA” from the drop-down list of reunion/affinity groups when prompted.

Alumni Magazine Publishes “Queer History” of William & Mary

The feature article in the latest edition of William & Mary’s alumni magazine is a “queer history” of the College, including the early years of this organization, William & Mary GALA. Read the article here. Kudos to the Alumni Association for publishing the most in-depth piece on the College’s LGBTQ community to date.

2014 Annual Update

This has been a transformative year for William & Mary GALA. In January, the board voted to join the William & Mary Alumni Association as an affinity group, making GALA the College’s official LGBTQ alumni society. Over the summer, GALA began the formal process of integrating with the Alumni Association after 28 years as an independent corporation. GALA continues to build the College’s LGBTQ alumni network with the support, resources, and backing of the Alumni Association.

Other highlights from the last year:

• GALA expanded its social media presence, nearly doubling membership in the Facebook group (from 135 to 263) and adding dozens of new followers to the @wmgala Twitter feed.

• GALA saw continued growth in readership of the email newsletter, which is seen by more than 350 people around the world. Seriously! We have readers in the U.K., China, Japan, France, Spain, the Netherlands, South Africa, Guatemala, and more.

• GALA hosted ten events throughout the mid-Atlantic, from Hampton Roads to Washington, DC to New York.

• Thanks to your support of the Boswell Initiative, the inaugural Boswell Symposium kicked off in April with Left Behind: The Consequences of Virginia’s Continuing Opposition to Same-Sex Unions, a daylong event in Williamsburg that featured distinguished visiting faculty and panel discussions on the topic of same-sex marriage in Virginia. More than 50 students signed up to take a corresponding one-credit course — funded by you — that explored the issues presented at the Symposium.

• GALA continued to co-sponsor events on campus to support the efforts of LGBTQ student and faculty organizations, including the third annual LGBTQ Pride Fest.

• GALA supported current students and faculty in their quest for equal rights, lending support to the College’s consideration of a policy change that added “gender identity or expression” to the College’s non-discrimination policy. The newly-adopted policy went into effect at the start of the current academic year.

• GALA continued to support other GALA-initiated projects on campus, including the William & Mary GALA Foundation, the Boswell Initiative, the Boswell Memorial Lecture Series, and the Stephens LGBTQ oral history project at Swem Library.

• These are just the highlights. With your support, next year we look forward to doing more …

GALA Dues Now Payable Online

William & Mary GALA is now the official alumni association of the College of William & Mary. You can now join GALA, pay dues, and update your contact information online! Click here.

One Tribe: WMAA Approves GALA Constituency Group

Our organization will be heading to an official home at the William and Mary Alumni Association nearly 30 years after GALA’s founding in 1986. On March 22, the Board of the Directors of the William and Mary Alumni Association approved a proposal for a new constituency group during their D.C. meeting. This is an historic move for both organizations.

Stay tuned in the coming months for more information about the transition as we shift from an independent entity to one housed and fully-integrated with the William and Mary Alumni Association. With this recognition, there are many, many benefits to come for our group. The road here has been a long one, but together we have thoughtfully considered the future and goals of this organization. Now comes the fun part: getting back to the work we do well and would like to do more of — advancing LGBT alumni issues and offering support, mentorship, and guidance to the College’s LGBT studies, alumni, and allies.

Yours in service,

The GALA Board

Homecoming 2013!

We are just one week away from Homecoming 2013! We hope your plans include a trip to Williamsburg and that you will join us at one of these GALA events:

John Boswell Memorial Lecture

WHEN: Friday, October 25, 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: Tyler Hall, Room 102

This year’s Boswell Memorial Lecture Series Speaker is Kathryn Babayan, Professor and Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the University of Michigan and an international expert on gender and sexuality in Islam. A reception will follow outside in the Blair Garden.

Homecoming Block Party

WHEN: Friday, October 25, 6:00 p.m.
WHERE: Alumni House and Richmond Road

GALA will have space at this annual Homecoming event, which features food and beverages for purchase, live music, and other entertainment. Look for the rainbow balloons!

Homecoming Tailgate Party

WHEN: Saturday, October 26, Noon
WHERE: Sunken Gardens

GALA will have space at the main on-campus Saturday Homecoming event, giving alumni an opportunity to meet other alumni, mingle with students and faculty, and enjoy a (hopefully) beautiful October day in the Sunken Gardens. $20 registration payable to the W&M Alumni Association.

Annual GALA Reception

WHEN: Saturday, October 26, 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Tucker Hall Foyer

Join GALA in between reunion events for an evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and intimate conversation at the newly-renovated Tucker Hall in the center of old campus. We will hold a short program highlighting the year’s achievements and looking forward to the next year. Students, faculty, and friends are welcome to attend! To help us anticipate catering needs, please RSVP no later than Tuesday, October 22.

2013 Annual Update

2013 has been a busy year for W&M GALA so far. Some highlights:

• We expanded our use of social media, growing our Facebook group to more than 210 members and initiating a W&M GALA Twitter feed that counts nearly 50 followers after just five months. (We even had a celebrity re-tweet!)

• We launched a new e-mail newsletter with a more polished look. Our newsletter is read by more than 300 people in nearly 20 countries.

• We hosted 15 events in Williamsburg, VA, Washington, DC, and New York, NY, introducing (and re-introducing) our students, faculty, and alumni to Pariah filmmaker Nekisa Cooper ’99, Eminent Outlaws author Chris Bram ’74, Professor Tom Heacox, and other notable alumni and faculty.

• We launched the Boswell Initiative, a fund that supports interdisciplinary scholarship on LGBTIQ life through visiting professors, courses, lectures, workshops, film series, student and faculty research stipends, academic written works, and arts/theater productions. The Boswell Initiative has received more than $16,000 in commitments through GALA so far.

• We welcomed Robert Tisdale ’08 (Treasurer) and James Morton ’12 (Secretary) as GALA officers.

• We helped the William & Mary alumni team for AIDS Walk New York raise more than $15,000, contributing to the team’s 20-year total of $235,000, more than any other college alumni group.

• We co-sponsored and announced events on campus to support the efforts of LGBTIQ student and faculty organizations, including the second annual LGBTIQ Pride Fest and Drag Ball and a financial planning seminar for same-sex couples led by the business school’s Mason Alliance.

• We supported our alumni and faculty in their quest for equal rights, contributing to the successful marriage equality effort led by Marylanders for Marriage Equality and helping to define and publicize the need for domestic partner benefits for employees of Virginia’s public institutions, including the College.

• We continued to support multiple GALA-initiated projects on campus, including the John Boswell Memorial Lecture Series and the Stephens LGBTIQ oral history project at Swem Library.

 

State Delegates Approve Bill Forcing Universities to Fund Discriminatory Groups

The Virginia House of Delegates voted 80-19 today to approve HB1617, a bill that would invite any religious or political university student group to discriminate as they please and still require the campus to providing them funding and access to campus facilities. This would make LGBT students particularly vulnerable to discrimination because universities’ protections for sexual orientation are not enforceable under Virginia law. Click here for more information.

Athlete Ally Founder to Speak on Campus

Hudson Taylor founded Athlete Ally in January of 2011. An athlete all his life, Hudson experienced demeaning humor in high school and college athletics, but befriended LGBT people when studying theater and Interactive Performance Art at the University of Maryland. Seeing the juxtaposition between the theatre department and the locker room, Hudson felt it was imperative that he confront a side of sports that no athlete should be proud of: sports marginalize LGBT athletes, coaches and others through systemic homophobia and transphobia. Hudson decided that he could no longer watch from the sidelines as his athletic culture isolated and segregated LGBT athletes and betrayed the integrity and diversity at the heart of athletics.

When Hudson wore an LGBT equality sticker from the Human Rights Campaign on his wrestling headgear, he encountered criticism from his peers, but received positive attention from the media. Following his presence in the media, Hudson received hundreds of emails from parents and closeted athletes. This experience inspired him to found this non-for-profit organization, with the mission of educating, encouraging and empowering straight athlete allies to combat homophobia and transphobia in sports.

Hudson Taylor to speak @ W&M
January 28th @ 9pm
Sadler Center – Commonwealth Auditorium

GALA Urges Your Support of NYC AIDS Walk

GALA urges members to remember the William and Mary Alumni and Friends Team that has walked in every NYC AIDS Walk for more than a generation. The walk is Sunday, May 20 and there is time to pledge. Follow this link to offer support to the Team Organizer, Gary Cowling — also the recipient of GALA’s 2011 Director’s Cup.