LGBTQI

David Eisenbach | #ColumbiaPride

the creation of the student home Ohio League the very first gay student group in the world right happens here at Columbia in 1966 it gets official

University recognition in 1967 but it's not the beginning of the story of gay people at Columbia we have the famous examples in the 1940s of Allen Ginsberg Jack Kerouac the the foundation of the

Beat movement which opened up a whole sort of discussion in post-war America about homosexuality these students were nurtured by the great professors like Lionel trilling

and Mark Van Doren and this throughout the whole history of the gay rights movement at Columbia even when the university might be trying to quiet things down nonetheless there was this

atmosphere in this environment that was nurturing the rebel nurturing those who were going to challenge the system even the the heavy sexual mores of post-war America

In the 1970s, minority groups were creating communities on campus. The Gay Lounge on Columbia’s campus was recognized by the University in 1972 and it’s existence, like the existence of the Student Homophile League, had a ripple effect on the gay civil rights movement. Historian and LitHum Professor David Eisenbach talks about Columbia’s queer history. #PrideofLions