Illinois State University's ( ISU's ) student gay-rights groupincorporated under the name "Homophile ISU," once called the "Gay People's Alliance," now simply called "Pride"will mark its 39th anniversary Nov. 9. Windy City Times recently caught up with the founder of Homophile ISU, deg farrelly, who talked about the group's beginnings. ( farrelly prefers not to capitalize his name. )
Incorporated in Normal, Ill., in 1971, Homophile ISU was founded at a heady time: The Stonewall riots, considered to have sparked the modern gay-rights movement, had occurred just two years earlier. Gay student groups were sparking across the country, including a handful at Chicago universitiesa chapter of the national organization Gay Liberation Front, for instance, had recently formed at the University of Chicago.
In the fall of 1971, farrelly placed a bulletin advertising the nascent organization in the school newspaper, the Vidette. The initial meeting, he said, drew a crowd of a dozen or more.
"I know that I was scared," farrelly said. "I truly was alone." Despite his fears, farrelly said that he encountered little resistance to the group, either from the school administration or from his classmates. About a year after the founding, the group changed its name to the "Gay People's Alliance" and registered as an official college organizationa move that gave it access to school funding.
The group also did its own fundraising. "Our first fundraising activity was a drag show," farrelly said, laughing when he recalled the contention that accompanied the plans. "We had enormous debates over whether that was an appropriate thing to do." The group found professional drag performers in Peoria and Springfield, one of whom, farrelly recalled, performed "some Diana Ross stuff."
With its funding, the Gay People's Alliance started an office on campus, which for a time housed a gay library with titles like The Gay Mystique and Patience and Sarah, the latter a historical novel with lesbian themes. One year, farrelly said, the group participated in the Chicago Pride Parade. He said that the banner that the students carried"Normal, Illinois Gay People's Alliance"drew laughs from the crowd.
The Gay People's Alliance also sponsored activities like lectures, one of which, farrelly recalls, was by gay activist Barbara Gittings; farrelly said the title of her lecture was "Homosexuality: What Every Heterosexual Should Know."
"We had no idea what to expect" from the college audience, farrelly said. "And they were hanging from the rafters."
farrelly left ISU for graduate school in 1974. He is currently a librarian at Arizona State University.