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.

 

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