About

This collection documents the activities of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students and faculty at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan as a part of two campus organizations: OUTLook and ALLIES. OUTLook was a student group with faculty advisors, while ALLIES is primarily a faculty and staff organization that is also open to students. OUTLook had several previous names, including the One in Ten Society, the Ten Percent Club, and the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual Student Union (GLBSU). In the early 2010s, another LGBT student group formed on campus called Queers and Allies. In 2016, OUTLook ceased to exist as it combined with Queers and Allies. NMU ALLIES' purpose is to provide an avenue for faculty, staff, and students who wish to offer visible support for a safe university environment for faculty, staff, and students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (GLBT). The organization seeks to inform others about sexual diversity issues, and to encourage people to join others on the campus and on a national level working to support the GLBT community nationwide.

Currently, the only portion of the collection available online is an oral history interview with Skye Patrick, an NMU alumna who helped to found the Ten Percent Club in the 1990s. The analog collection, which can be accessed at the Central Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University Archives, includes agendas, minutes, brochures, mailing and membership lists, correspondence, newspaper clippings, events files, constitutions, and conference materials. The collection documents the annual drag show, blue jeans day, speaker programs, and the fight for domestic partner benefits at Northern Michigan University and in Michigan more broadly. Also included are records of the Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian Student Union, the predecessor of OUTLook. The analog materials date from 1993 to 2005.

See the full finding aid here.