East Carolina Gay Community (1978-1984)
The Buccaneer, Volume 55, 1979
Formation:
The East Carolina Gay Community was originally formed in response to an anonymous suicide letter that was published in the student newspaper on November 14, 1978. The Newman Catholic Center aided the prospective gay organization by allowing them to hold meetings at the ministry’s house. The East Carolina Gay Community was officially approved as a student organization by the Student Government Association on February 12, 1979.
For further reading, please see “Foundations of LGBTQ Students Organizing at East Carolina University” at http://library.ecu.edu/specialcollections/blog/
Significant Events:
One of the East Carolina Gay Community’s earliest endeavors was the creation of a peer counseling service through the ECU Counseling Center. In February of 1979, the group requested $200 from the SGA in order to conduct a training seminar for the student volunteers. Although the bill had been favorably reported by the appropriations committee, both the request and ECGC were harshly attacked by several legislators. One member openly rejected the prospect of the SGA ever approving funding for a group of “abnormal deviates” as he put it. The bill was unfortunately defeated by a narrow margin with 16 for, 19 against, and 7 abstaining. Support for ECGC flooded the newspaper for weeks following the defeat with a notable contribution from Fountainhead Advertising Manager Robert M. Swaim.
In April of 1979, ECGC decided to enter a “best darn organization at East Carolina University” contest being held at a local Burger King. The contest soon became a battleground between the East Carolina Gay Community and Burger King’s management. The manager initially attempted to have the group disqualified, but was defeated after the SGA President Tommy Payne stepped in to defend ECGC’s right to participate. The East Carolina Gay Community was ultimately declared the winner after a private benefactor bought over $200 in burgers and gave each vote to the gay students.
What happened?
For unexplained reasons, the group completely vanished from public view between April and August of 1984. Then in May of 1985, Vice Chancellor of Student Life Elmer Meyer confirmed that the East Carolina Gay Community had been “officially inactive” for the 1984-1985 year. One of the possible causes for the organization’s dissolution was the AIDS Crisis, which was becoming mainstream news in North Carolina. It is likely that the epidemic could have facilitated an upsurge in homophobic activity that created an unsafe environment for members. Moreover, concerns over infection might have also resulted in internal conflicts that destabilized the group’s structure. The most identifiable factor in the organization’s downfall was the shift in the Newman Catholic Center’s leadership. During the summer of 1984, Sister Helen Shondell was replaced as the head of the Catholic ministry by a staunchly conservative priest. The ECGC might have preemptively disbanded to avoid conflict with the center.
Photograph of the ECGC Christmas party
Members of the East Carolina Gay Community during the organization’s first Christmas party at the Newman Catholic Student Center. Although there are sixteen other photographs that document this organization, this is the only formal “group” picture that has been located to date. Moreover, this might be one of the only surviving photographs of a gay student organization in North Carolina during this time.
Photograph of Sister Jane Paris and Sister Helen "Happy" Shondell at an East Carolina Gay Community organizational social
Despite the varying conflicts that the ECGC faced, Sister Jane Paris and Sister Helen Shondell of the Newman Catholic Center remained staunch allies of the gay student group. Sister Shondell in particular, viewed her work with the gay students as an “integral part” of her ministry service on campus.
In the fall of 1980, members of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity began verbally harassing “visitors” to the Newman Catholic Center. This event was referenced in Promises Kept: East Carolina University, 1980-2007, but fails to note that the “visitors” were members of the East Carolina Gay Community. TKE offered to pay Sister Shondell to kick the ECGC group out of the center, which she flatly rejected. A year later, members of the fraternity pulled decorations off the ministry’s homecoming float and burned them in front of the TKE house.
The Ebony Herald, October 1981