Eastern Gay Alliance (1975-1980)

Fountainhead, January 15, 1976

Formation:

The Eastern Gay Alliance, originally formed in September of 1975, was the first gay rights organization in Greenville, North Carolina. It was created in response to individual concerns over the lack of unified advocacy efforts in the region. After becoming a public organization in January of 1976, the EGA began to focus specifically on combating homophobia by providing educational outreach and grassroots activism.

Significant Events:

In early 1976, the Fountainhead ran a multi-part exposé on the gay community of Greenville, which focused greatly on the EGA. In response, an editor of the student newspaper initiated a black-out campaign against the organization. Although a number of students and faculty complained, the newspaper discontinued publishing any information about the EGA’s activities.

Members of the EGA were part of the original planning committee for the Carolina Gay Association’s first Southeastern Gay Conference in 1976. The group even participated in leading several of the workshops at the second conference.

In February of 1976, two members of the EGA were interviewed as a part of WNCT-TV’s “Carolina Today” program about homosexuality. Representatives of the gay alliance were apparently well-received by the panelists that participated. 

What happened?

In October of 1980, the meeting announcements for the EGA, which had appeared regularly in the Daily Reflector, suddenly stopped. There are a number of possible explanations as to why the EGA ultimately dissolved. As ECU students formed the primary membership of the group, the student organization that formed in 1978 might have unintentionally caused a drought in participation.

Eastern Gay Alliance Newsletter, January 1976

The fifth issue of the Eastern Gay Alliance’s monthly (later bimonthly) newsletter published in January of 1976. The EGA began producing these in September of 1975, shortly after the organization was initially formed. The pages on display are facsimiles of the original copy which is currently housed in the University Archives at the Wilson Library. Two other issues were discovered in the Homosexual Information Center Subject Files Collection at California State University, Northridge’s Oviatt Library. These are the only three issues of the EGA newsletter have been successfully located to date.