On September 4, 1990 Chancellor Paul Hardin added sexual orientation to the University's nondiscrimination policy in a statement to deans, directors and department chairs; according to Lambda, it did not cover the ROTC program, outside employers on campus or the Marriott-run Carolina Dining Services. On December 18 the Carrboro Board of Aldermen unanimously added sexual orientation to the characteristics protected in the town's personnel ordinance and equal employment opportunity policy. By February 1991 the housing department and the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association had announced a three-part study of gay, lesbian and bisexual students: an anonymous survey, a random telephone survey of campus residents and a forum in Gerrard Hall set for March 25. Housing director Wayne Kuncl said the department saw the need after its spring 1990 quality-of-life survey gave gay and lesbian students no way to identify themselves. By April 8, seven amendments to the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, approved by Student Congress and the Faculty Council, had gone to Hardin. They applied the new policy against harassment based on sexual orientation, defined hazing, made the code gender neutral and rewrote the racial harassment provision.
By March 1992, at the association's request, career planning and placement director Marcia Harris said her office would add a question to its recruiting form asking companies whether they had a written policy against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and CGLA co-chair Svati Shah said the answers would be printed in Lambda. By early June Hardin was one of more than 70 college administrators who had signed an American Civil Liberties Union form stating personal objection to the Defense Department policy barring gay people from military service, though he said he would not force the Naval and Air Force ROTC programs off campus. CGLA chairman Doug Ferguson welcomed the signature and said the group would press for institutional opposition in the fall.
That summer the association's notices on the cube in the Pit were defaced twice. On June 4 a UNC security officer found two of them, one announcing a march for gay rights, covered with turpentine and black paint; vice chancellor Donald Boulton called it the lowest form of cowardice and hatred. On June 27 vandals wrote a death threat on the cube, saying they knew who gay students were and where they lived. The association left the paint up for a time so others could see what it said lesbian, gay and bisexual students faced. On November 20 the month-old Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association, with Bisexuals, Gay Men, Lesbians and Allies for Diversity, held its first event, a Student Union panel of openly gay elected officials in town for their international conference, among them West Hollywood mayor John Heilman and Maine state senator Dale McCormick. Council member Joe Herzenberg had helped bring the conference to Chapel Hill.
In February 1993 nine of the 14 managers of Carolina Dining Services, run by the Marriott Corporation, voted to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy, but director Chris Derby held off, saying he wanted a consensus and advice from University officials. On February 16 the Chapel Hill Town Council heard sharp debate over council member Joe Herzenberg's proposal to write into the town charter that the town would carry out all its functions without discrimination on grounds that included "affectional orientation"; Herzenberg and Mark Chilton said a charter clause, unlike the comprehensive plan's policy, could not simply be revoked. On February 19 the Student Organized Movement Against Discrimination (SO MAD), a new coalition of student groups, rallied outside Lenoir Dining Hall, and about 100 protesters marched silently through it. After a SO MAD petition of more than 700 signatures and a St. Patrick's Day deadline set by the students, Derby added sexual orientation to the dining service's policy during spring break and told the campus on March 17.
Further reading
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are the most widely held histories of the theme it is filed under, so they may not discuss it. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
Background on LGBTQ+ Life & Activism · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it
Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray
Rosenberg, Rosalind · 2017
Rosalind Rosenberg's 2017 biography of Pauli Murray (1910-1985), lawyer, poet and Episcopal priest, raised in Durham. Its six parts follow a Southern childhood, the move to New York, the 1938 application to the University of North Carolina that was refused because Murray was Black (the chapter is titled 'Members of your race are not admitted'), law school and the coining of the phrase Jane Crow, the Cold War years, the push toward 'an NAACP for women', and a late-life ordination. 494 pages with portraits.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (2018).
Lightning Brown papers,
Brown, Lightning · 1983
Papers of Lightning Brown, a Chapel Hill activist for gay rights who was also the first openly gay person in North Carolina to run for public office. Most of the 1,500 items concern the 1984 elections: letters to and from public officials, articles and studies reflecting his work in the Democratic Party, on national legislation and on gay rights.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill records, 1975-2014.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Center · 1975
Records of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Center at UNC, 1975 to 2014, about 900 items in 2 linear feet, in the University Archives at UNC, collection 40433. Student groups represented include the Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association, B-GLAD, and the Women's Forum of the Association of Women Students, with student housing at Chapel Hill also covered.
William Ruthrauff Amberson papers, 1919-1968; 1971
Amberson, William Ruthrauff, 1894- · 1915
William Ruthrauff Amberson, born 1894, left papers spanning 1919 to 1968 with a small run from 1971. The papers concern the University of Tennessee at Memphis and southern farm politics: the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, the Delta Cooperative Farm and Providence Plantation in Mississippi, the Socialist Party, and figures such as Norman Thomas, Howard Kester and Pauli Murray. Part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3862.
Michael R. Nelson papers, circa 1890-2012
Nelson, Michael R., 1963- · 1890
Roughly 2,000 items in 6.5 linear feet kept as the papers of Michael R. Nelson, born 1963, dated from about 1890 to 2012, collection 70140 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Topics include politics and government in Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County, campaign paraphernalia, and gay activists and politicians in North Carolina, naming Joseph A. Herzenberg, 1941 to 2007.
Joseph A. Herzenberg papers 1883-2006.
Herzenberg, Joseph A., 1941-2007 · 1883
Twenty linear feet of papers from Joseph A. Herzenberg, 1941 to 2007, about 2,500 items dated 1883 to 2006 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 5367. Diaries are among the formats. The work describes a historian and political activist in Chapel Hill, campaign paraphernalia and Democratic Party politics, and gay activists and gay politicians in North Carolina.
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John Seelye papers,
Seelye, John · 1862
Papers of John Seelye (1931 to 2015), literary scholar and Penguin Classics editor, who taught American literature at Berkeley, Connecticut, UNC Chapel Hill, Dartmouth and Florida. The 26,100 items (46.7 linear feet) run from 1862 to 2015, mostly 1955 to 2007, in series of correspondence and contracts, academic files, research files, writings and personal papers, with Melville and Mark Twain among his subjects.
