Who have we become?

LGBTA Organization of Loyola University of Maryland is proud to bring you our first ever blog site. This site will keep you updated on events pertaining to sexual diversity and acceptance in the surrounding community.

It’s been a long and windy road…

2010

Spectrum Blog created: LoyolaSpectrum/Wordpress.com

2008
Spectrum collaborates with Towson University, Goucher College, and Johns Hopkins University to host a Fall Social Dance event for students in the Baltimore Collegetown network. A first of its kind.

2007
Spectrum hosts the first free on-campus HIV Screening with the help of the GLCCB, Chase Braxton, and the Health Center.

2006
Spectrum throws the first Sexual Diversity Awareness Month. Events included a screening of the film “Kinsey”, the Spectrum Coffee House, Being Gay in Non-Gay Places V, and speeches by Danny Roberts, B.D. Wong, and T. J. Jourian.

2005
Spectrum’s “Love and Relationships” meeting breaks meeting attendance record with over 75 individuals present, shattering the old record by over 50%.  Fr. Linanne, newly inaugurated President of Loyola, was one of the many in attandance that day.

Spectrum celebrates its tenth aniversary as a club at Loyola.

The Fourth Anual Sexual Diversity Awareness Week is held to record-breaking attendances at all of the events. Judy Wieder,Corporate Editorial Director and former Editor-in-Chief of The Advocate, the nation’s premiere gay and lesbian newsmagazine,delivered the keynote address with over 400 individuals in attendance.

2004
Spectrum register 60 walkers and raises $7,500 for the DC AIDS Walk, an annual event aimed at raising funds for HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

The Third Anual Sexual Diversity Awareness Week is held to record-breaking attendances at all of the events. Billy Bean, one of the first openly gay players in Major League Baseball, delivered the keynote address with over 400 individuals in attendance.

2003
Dr. Martha Taylor’s cultural series lecture on homosexuality in ancient Greece and Rome breaks the attendance record for any Spectrum event to date, gathering well over 200 people.

The Denim Day lecture, for the second year in a row, is held to a record-breaking, standing room only audience of over 200 people.

Spectrum launches VoiceOUT! and publishes in The Greyhound the names of 724 individuals who support equal rights for GLBT and allied persons.

The Diversity Award is given to Spectrum at the annual Gratias ceremony, marking the first time the award has ever been given to a club or organization.

Spectrum is awarded the first-ever Fr. Tim Brown Club of the Year Award, receiving a standing ovation at the Student Choice Awards’ ceremony.

Representatives of Spectrum are selected to meet with the Student Development Committee of the Loyola College Board of Trustees to discuss the GLBT experience at Loyola.

Spectrum drafts a proposal to the Academic Senate calling for the inclusion of the diversity statement, and in particular sexual orientation, into the diversity section of the Undergraduate Curriculum Aims. The proposal is accepted for consideration and ratified on April 8th, 2003, making this the first time in Loyola’s history that such sociodemographic variables as race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are explicitly labeled in the Curriculum Aims.

The second annual Sexual Diversity Awareness Week is held. The keynote event, On Being Gay in Non-Gay Places II, is attended by over 150 individuals.

Spectrum and Chase Brexton begin community outreach activities for GLBTA youth by founding a Gay-Straight Alliance at Baltimore City College High School.

In conjunction with the Office of Student Activities and other campus organizations, Spectrum brings comedian, activist, and actress Margaret Cho to Loyola in a sold-out performance free for undergraduate students.

2002
Spectrum proposes the establishment of special interest housing for GLBT and allied students for the 2003-2004 Academic Year. The Office of Student Life approves the proposal for discussion.

Spectrum’s “Coming-Out” meeting breaks meeting attendance record with over 50 individuals present.

The Denim Day lecture is held to a record-breaking, standing room only audience of over 200 people.

Spectrum and the AIDS Fundraising Coalition register 75 walkers and raise $4,600 for the DC AIDS Walk, an annual event aimed at raising funds for HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

Spectrum submits a proposal to the Office of Student Development in an attempt to establish an office of GLBTA student services at Loyola.

GLBT issues are for the first time directly addressed during summer orientation for first-year students.

Director of Student Life, Leonard Brown, and Vice President of Student Development, Dr. Susan Donovan, release the Report of Suspensions for the 2001-2002 academic year. In it they highlight incidents of hate against GLBT students as a primary concern for the campus community.

Spectrum holds the first-ever Sexual Diversity Awareness Week in an attempt to effect a college environment where homophobia and hatred are replaced by understanding, acceptance, and inclusiveness.

2001
Spectrum begins a yearlong film series in an attempt to illuminate the tremendous diversity within the larger gay community.

Student Life implements a limited safe-zone program aimed at offering GLBT individuals visibly safe places of support and understanding.

Various Loyola College organizations invite Judy Shepard to address the campus on the price of hate. Her son Matthew was brutally murdered in 1998 because of his sexuality.

2000
Spectrum submits a proposal to the Vice President of Human Resources calling for the inclusion of sexual orientation in Loyola’s non-discrimination policy.

1999
GLOBAL is hereafter known as Spectrum.

1997
The first Denim Day is organized by GLOBAL and the Resident Affairs Council in an effort to support the basic human rights of GLBT individuals at Loyola.

1995/96
GLOBAL, Loyola’s first GLBT Awareness and Support Group, is founded.

Past On Being Gay in Non-Gay Places Panelists

2008
Carolina Rodriguez ’08
Michael Campitelli ’08
Thomas Saporito ’08
Terra Schehr, Director of Institutional Research

2007
John Oghia ’07
Cynthia Rodriguez ’07
Paul Cubita ’07
Sean Dowd, Assistant Director of Student Life

2006
Matthew Favre ’06
Edmund Dunn ’06
Doug Schultz ’06

2005
Rob Martiniello ’05
Jennifer Lumpkin ’05
George Miller, Associate Direction of Campus Ministry

2004
Frank Golom ’04
Leola Brady-Price ’04
Bettina Straight, Associate Director of Student Life

2003
Matthew Fitzgerald ‘03
Kristine Larson ‘03
Dr. Ellen Hoadley, Associate VP of Academic Affairs

2002
Frank Golom ‘04
Andrew Kearney ‘04
Dr. Jonathan Mohr, Assistant Professor of Psychology

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