Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgendered Alliance: 1999-2003

The group added the letter T to become the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Alliance. The used of the word ‘transgendered’ rather than ‘transgender’ was common in many local and national organizations during this time period. This is the first time transgender people are explicitly named in the organization’s title, though there was a change made to the membership nondiscrimination policy in the GLBA’s constitution of 1993 which prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identification. [1]

This was a departure from the official UA Student Committee’s required nondiscrimination policy on the basis of just sex with no mention of gender. This showed that UA was more concerned with protecting students with a binary gender that was defined on the basis of sex and assigned at birth. The GLBTA’s policy sought to protect students on the basis of their prefered gender assignment.

In the late 1990’s it became increasingly common for GLBT+ organizations to flip the G and L and become LGBT+ organizations. This was largely in part to the significant role lesbian women played in serving their community during the AIDS crisis. Despite this  national trend, the UA organization remained GLBTA.



1 Hoole Special Collections Library, Miller-Stephens LGBTQ UA Student Organization collection, Box 1, Folder 8, GLBTA Constitution