Gay Liberation Front of Sacramento State College records

The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) of Sacramento State College was a student group on the Sacramento State campus that was officially recognized in February of 1971. Previously, GLF was named the Society for Homosexual Freedom (SHF), which began formation by students and supportive faculty in 1970. At a Associated Students of Sacramento State College (ASSSC) meeting held on March 2, 1970, SHF represented by George Raya (an early student participant in the formation of the SHF, a member of the student Senate and chair of the Organizational Affairs Committee) introduced a request for the SHF to be recognized as an official campus student group. ASSSC approved the petition 7-4, with one abstention. Despite this approval by the ASSSC, acting Sacramento State president Otto Butz refused to grant formal recognition to the student group in March 1970. With this refusal, a lawsuit was filed by students addressing the legal question of whether a public university could refuse to grant recognition to such a student group in California (Associated Students of Sacramento State College v. Butz, Civil Case No. 200975, Superior Court, Sacramento, California, February 15, 1971). Judge William Gallagher found in favor of the students, and with the conclusion of the lawsuit, ASSSC approved the constitution for the SHF with the college formally recognizing the group on February 19, 1971. After this approval, the group renamed themselves the Gay Liberation Front of Sacramento State College in 1971 and as a campus approved organization was now able to sponsor official campus events.

Names of those that were instrumental in forming and evolving this group include Sacramento State psychology professor Martin Rogers, Charles Moore, and Anthropology professor Clark Taylor (faculty members) and George Raya, Joe Aiello, and Edgar Carpenter (students) who were influenced by the formation of gay student organizations at other college campuses nearby. Support also came from other groups on campus (both gay/lesbian groups and others who were not) including the ASSSC, those in the Women’s Studies program, Women’s Caucus and Women’s Liberation, and Students for Democratic Society (SDS), among others.

For more information see reference: Reichard, D. (2010). “We Can’t Hide and They Are Wrong”: The Society for Homosexual Freedom and the Struggle for Recognition at Sacramento State College, 1969–1971. Law and History Review, 28(3), 629–674.