The gay movement at FAU has been here in several incarnations, the earliest beginning in 1970 along with the gay rights movement. It was originally called The Florida Atlantic University Gay Academic Union. The GAU organized many protests in their time, concerned over the effects of various movies as some applied to gay stereotypes and how that could adversely affect views of gay on the campus.
Later on, possibly after the original GAU stopped operating on campus, Dr. Fred Fejes came onto the scene. He and several students began Lambda United, and they began sending out to other colleges for information they might have, and received reports from many colleges, among them "From Invisibility to Inclusion," from the University of Michigan, "The Consequences of Being Gay," from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and "In Every Classroom," from the State University of New Jersey. All of these colleges and more had long reports on how their students were faring, conditions at the school, and what could be done to fix those conditions.
He and his students approached the President at the time, Anthony Catanese, about changing the University's discrimination policy to include the gay and lesbian students on campus. At that time, in order to change University policy--any university, not just FAU--they would need to approach the Florida Legislature about changing the policies. Unfortunately, at that time the Legislature was not very cooperative regarding that issue. It was a major defeat for Lambda, and one that has never been corrected despite that now, changes to the policies of most universities and colleges are determined by the Board Of Trustees.
An exhibit at the FAU Library in 1992 (by the original Lambda) was repeatedly vandalized, its signs torn down and various hateful things were printed on the comment board. Still, there were some positive remarks. "I wish I saw this three years ago. It would've made things so much easier. --a gay normal student" was one of them, and "I live in the dorms and am gay. I'm sick of the homophobic students here at FAU who have to prove their manhood by gay-bashing. Most likely most of them are in the closet or confused. Great display!" was another.
Today's Lambda restarted in the 2007-08 school year after a period of absence from the school for a number of years. A student from a