The Denton Gay Alliance (DGA) was established in 1975 under the leadership of North Texas State University (NTSU) student Ruben Salinas. On March 12, 1976 Salinas asked President C. C. Nolan\u2019s Cabinet to formally recognize DGA as a campus organization. The Cabinet denied the request on March 23 because DGA was partially composed of non-student members, a barrier to official recognition. The DGA operated as a campus social chapter for a few more years but fizzled out after Salinas graduated and left Denton.<\/p>\r\n
In October 1976 an NTSU student calling himself \u201cMWF\u201d wrote a series of letters<\/a> about his life as an out gay man to North Texas Daily<\/em> editor Terry Pair. MWF\u2019s letters captured a young man struggling with his sexuality and public identity. The anonymous author admitted he\u2019d contemplating suicide and closed one letter with \u201cDon\u2019t tell me about the well-adjusted gay.\u201d DGA and an unidentified gay NTSU professor responded to MWF\u2019s letters<\/a> in the November 24 issue of the North Texas Daily<\/em> to encourage MWF and other \u201cmaladjusted homosexuals\u201d to seek help. The DGA used their editorial to rebut the NTSU President Cabinet\u2019s refusal to formally recognize the DGA earlier in the year. After identifying MWF as \u201cthe kind of person the [DGA] was formed to help, but has been unable to reach,\u201d the DGA authors encouraged the NTSU administration to re-read the MWF letters, claiming MWF\u2019s \u201ccase is a perfect example of why the DGA is needed at NTSU.\u201d A final round of despondent MWF letters<\/a> (apparently written well before the editorials in response) were published in the December 1 North Texas Daily<\/em>. Editor Pair suggests, as in his original article, that MWF might have been a prank but acknowledges that \u201cnobody in our culture\u201d understands \u201chow gays can blend into American society.\u201d<\/p>\r\n The first meeting of the Gay\/Lesbian Association of Denton (GLAD) was held August 29, 1979 in a private home. The attendance at the first meeting was a modest seven people but soon as many as 200 people were attending events advertised in the \u201cNotepad\u201d section of the Denton-Record Chronicle<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n Today the predominant campus organization for students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered is GLAD: UNT\u2019s Queer Alliance. The organization, which claims a membership of 300 on their website, maintains a Facebook and Tumblr page, along with Instagram and Twitter accounts. On October 10, 2014 GLAD celebrated National Coming Out Day (nationally observed on October 11) by asking the campus community to sign a door installed temporarily on the Library Mall.<\/p>\r\n