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Starting an LGBT Activist Group on Your Campus

Coming to an agreement that you want to incorporate activism

There was nothing that existed on Adelphi’s campus, so people just got together and started the group. We’re a small school in a conservative area, so it was hard in the beginning.

— Filomena Sposito, Adelphi University LGBTSSA (Garden City, NY)

One of the most important steps to building a strong and sustainable group begins by sitting down with peers and discussing your various options. As simple as it may sound, this step is sometimes the most time-consuming and critical.

Among other things, activism will involve dedication, desire and a vision. It is important that your group shares a common vision and that the members are willing to stand behind the group’s mission. The initial core of people who meet to start the group should talk openly and at length about why activism is important on your campus. This process will be helpful in the future if your group faces a rough patch and needs to reflect on the necessity of your group’s existence. Make sure that someone is taking notes so you can refer back to them later on as your group progresses. Documenting your group’s creation and work is important – so much of the queer movement’s history has been lost, take steps to keep yours intact.

  • Decide on your basic goals and priorities. Do you want your group to create uproar? Or do you see it acting in a different way? What will be the general tenor of your group?
  • If you are part of an existing group and hope to alter its nature from a primarily social to a more activist-oriented one, a meeting like this will be extremely helpful to propose a shift in the group’s mission and discuss your options.

Locating the areas/issues on which to focus your group’s activism

LGBT issues are numerous, varied and complex. Trying to address all the issues with one group may be overwhelming and less effective than focusing on particular issues based on your campus’ needs.

When thinking about how the group can best serve your campus community, ask questions like:

  • What do the administration or school-affiliated programs offer for LGBT students? Are there resources available for students, faculty and staff?
  • How can you best complement the school’s resources? How can you fill in the gaps where your school does not offer resources?
  • Do you want to serve the broader local community, just the campus community or some balance of both?
  • Is your group representative of the identities in the LGBT community? If not, how can you try to serve the needs of those who are not represented in your core group?
  • What issues seem to be relevant in your campus, town or state?
    Example!
    Many school groups based in Washington, DC have chosen to channel a significant amount of their activism towards hate crime legislation, education and protesting due to the remarkably high prevalence of hate crimes in the District.

In locating your focus areas, it’s important to consider any marginalized voices within the LGBT community and how you can best serve their needs.

Although you want your group to respond to your community’s most pressing needs, you also want to make sure not to neglect important issues that may not directly impact the majority of students.

  • Queers and Allies at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS) focuses a significant amount of its activism on Transgender Inclusion. As part of that mission, they have begun a campaign to advocate for gender-neutral bathrooms on their campus.
  • LGBTSSA at Adelphi University (Garden City, NY) goes into the city to volunteer at a local shelter to address the specific needs of homeless LGBT youth.
  • Spectrum at Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) has been working to improve the conditions for LGBT faculty and staff members at their university. They helped to successfully pass a Parental Leave Act which replaced the heterosexist Maternity Leave Act.

Expanding your group’s membership and building alliances

Much of the group’s success depends on its capacity to reach as many students as possible. This can only be accomplished if members of the group engage people in all corners of the campus – representing different identities or perspectives – about LGBT issues and offer them information about your group.

Work on making your group as welcoming as possible to people from all different crowds.

  • Many groups struggle to get a wide-variety of students involved with their group. In order to draw more people in, you will need to proactively extend a welcoming arm to others and let them know that your group is non-exclusive.
Example!
Student groups have experienced particular difficulties engaging LGBT student athletes. In order to encourage more participation from student athletes, your group could do more programming around issues that LGBT athletes face. You can also try to contact coaches and request that his or her team attends one of your group’s LGBT speakers bureaus.

Make your group visible! Get your name out there as much and as often as possible.

We made beaded rainbow necklaces and bracelets to be more visible on campus, and most of our members wear them.

— Jessica Baverman, Spectrum at Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA)
  • Design a logo for your group and feature it on your website, flyers, signs, t-shirts, etc.
  • Create a Facebook group!
  • If you are just starting up, send emails to other student groups about your group. This will let them know that you are interested in working together with them in the future and opens up possibilities for alliances.
  • Write to the student newspaper(s)
  • Go to other groups’ meetings and announce your group’s meeting time and place – invite them to join! This is effective because it shows that you are interested in their group’s mission as well.
  • Make T-shirts. There is nothing more eye-catching than a bunch of people wearing a flashy new t-shirt with a group’s logo on it.
    • This does not necessarily require you to dig too deeply into your wallet. You can get cheap plain t-shirts, break out the paint, markers and scissors and go at it.
  • Dorm storm! Split into groups and slip quarter-sheet informational pieces under the doors in all the dorms on your campus.
  • Flyer! Get your group’s name and logo out there by hanging up signs and flyers all around your campus’ most high-traffic areas.
    • Set up a table in your main quad or central campus area and distribute information about your group.
    Note!
    Some campuses require permission to post flyers, table in public spaces or distribute literature in dorms.
When we think about allies, we ask ourselves how we can get them to care enough to the point where they want to help. It’s important to locate areas you can collaborate on. Like, we are doing events with the Black Student Alliance on World Aids Day in hopes of expanding that alliance.

— Jarret Henson , KU Queers and Allies Activism Chair (Lawrence, KS)

We co-sponsored a drag show with Greek Life and saw a significant improvement in the way the Greek community and the LGBT community work together.

— Filomena Sposito, Adelphi University LGBTSSA (Garden City, NY)

What groups on your campus would be good allies?

  • Feminist groups, pro-choice groups, workers’ rights groups, faculty members and academic departments (women’s and gender studies; sexuality studies; sociology), College Democrats, Student Association, MEChA (Chicano student organizations), NAACP chapters, student newspapers, the LGBT Resource Center, the Women’s Center, etc.
  • Don’t discount groups and organizations that don’t immediately come to mind when you think of allies. You might not agree on every single issue, but you may be surprised where you can find common ground.
  • GenEQ Action Tools: Coalition Building

Think about potential non-school related allies in the surrounding community.

  • Pro-LGBT churches, law firms with a focus on civil rights, women’s NGOs, Planned Parenthood, local activist circles, LGBT community centers, etc.

Deciding on structure and delegating responsibilities

Spend some time discussing the leadership structure of your organization. There are several ways of organizing your group and it is important that you find the best fit for your group dynamics.

Two broad options are available when thinking about the structure.

  • A horizontal (or flat) structure: This is based off of an ideology that collective decision-making is the most organic way for a group to operate. Groups with a flat structure do not have rigid leadership positions, but instead make decisions through consensus-building and each member has an equal say in the direction of the group.
    • Benefits:
      • Encourages widespread involvement and investment from more group members
      • Prevents any one person from becoming the face of the group
    • Drawbacks:
      • Tendency for consensus-based decisions to be more time-consuming and less efficient
      • This option can be less effective for larger groups
  • A vertically structured group usually involves a board of, on average, anywhere from three to ten members. Many groups have two co-chairs in order to dilute the concentration of power at the top and several board members in charge of certain tasks.
    • Benefits:
      • This structure can improve efficiency by delegating specific responsibilities to certain people
    • Drawbacks:
      • Less inclusive and limits the number of people who can participate in decision-making
    We’re only the second executive board to be running the club and the [board] positions were put in place so we, as younger students, could learn how to do things and the club could continue to thrive after the people who started the club graduate. I think it was a real concern that the club could just fall apart if there weren’t designated positions.

    — Filomena Sposito, Adelphi University LGBTSSA (Garden City, NY)

As you make your decision and begin to formulate your group’s structure, keep the weaknesses of that structure in mind and work proactively to mitigate the drawbacks.

The campaign [for an LGBT resource center] was really a broader GU Pride effort from members. Our role as presidents was really just to facilitate that broader effort.

— Olivia Chitayat, GU Pride at Georgetown University (Washington, DC)
  • If you decide on a vertical structure, your board members should work to incorporate the ideas and voices of general members into your decision-making process. Reaching out to general membership is an integral component to any group’s success.
  • Inviting members to voice their ideas and concerns during the first half-hour of weekly executive board meetings or publicly listing an email address for your group or individual officers are two ways to ensure that members feel included.