UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The LGBTQIA+ Working Group of Penn State University Libraries’ Diversity Community of Advocacy will host the traveling exhibition “Out on Campus: A History of LGBTQ+ Activism at Pennsylvania Colleges and Universities” April 13-26 at the University Park campus.
The exhibition will be displayed in the Leisure Reading Room, 101 West Pattee Library, to coincide with Penn State’s Pride Month. “Out on Campus” is the third traveling exhibition by Barry Loveland, chair of the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project.
"['Out on Campus' tells] the stories of the formation of some of the earliest LGBTQ+ student organizations at college and universities in Pennsylvania [including Penn State] as well as more recent history, and experiences and personal stories of being openly LGBTQ+ on campus,” Loveland said. “‘Out on Campus’ is presented as both a digital exhibit on the web and a traveling exhibit. Additional material will be included on the exhibit web site.”
The exhibit began traveling to venues across Pennsylvania in September 2022. The digital version is on the web at centralpalgbthistory.org.
With an introduction by Marc Stein, a historian, author and professor at San Francisco State University, the exhibit chronicles stories of LGBTQ+ history at 11 of Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities. A wide spectrum of educational institutions is represented, including historically Black universities, historically single-gender colleges, state universities, private universities, historically religious-based colleges and community colleges.
“Visitors will learn about the largest documented LGBTQ+ civil rights student demonstration on a college or university campus in the nation before Stonewall; the first known openly transgender student government president in the nation; the university students who had to sue in order to get recognition for their student organization; and many more fascinating stories of LGBTQ+ campus activism right here in Pennsylvania,” said Loveland.
A similar exhibit, “The Long Road to LGBTQ+ Equality in Pennsylvania,” was hosted in Paterno Library in 2019 and at Berks Thun Library, Penn State Berks in 2022.