SIG Celebrates 50th Anniversary in DC!

By Kathleen Sideli

 Many of you may remember the first formal meeting of the Lesbigay Special Interest Group in San Francisco in 1993, where we had to confront an obstacle course to find our out-of- the-way meeting room. That momentous meeting, where 60 individuals were in attendance, was the culmination of many years of planning by a dedicated group of NAFSAns devoted to glbt needs and rights. The successes of the SIG to date can only be attributed to the commitment of all its members, many of whom have volunteered their time, efforts, materials and ideas.

Since its inception the SIG has not only complied with the commitments it established in its petition to the NAFSA board of directors in 1992 but also has achieved other goals it set for itself during the first meetings. The SIG today boasts of an active membership of about 100 but has included in its membership almost 300 individuals during the past five years. All this information is kept on a database. We have an electronic listserve to which 60 members have subscribed. There have been a number of workshops and sessions on glbt issues both at NAFSA national and regional conferences and at the national conferences we have established a visible presence with our colorful rainbow stickers. We sponsored, with support from NAFSA, a display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt at the Phoenix conference in 1996. And the panel we created for that display, which commemorated NAFSAns or their family members, colleagues and friends, was submitted to the Quilt display in Washington, DC, in October of 1996. With the launch of our own web site in 1997, the SIG achieved its goal of providing resources for the entire international educational community: bibliographies, suggestions and material for orienting and counseling glbt international students and Americans studying abroad, resources for ESL teachers interested in providing a multicultural dimension to their students, information for glbt professionals and links to other resources and organizations.

The SIG invites its members to officially renew their commitment to the group each year and collects an optional activity fee. We publish a newsletter to keep our members informed about activities of the group and to keep them apprized of related international glbt issues.

While we look forward to celebrating our accomplishments as this fifth-year milestone approaches, we need to focus our attention on where we go from here. Come to the business meeting with your ideas about what the SIG needs to do in the next five years. NAFSA has scheduled our business meeting during a time devoted to sessions, so mark your calendars: Wednesday, May 27, 1998, 3:15 p.m. You should experience fewer conflicts since the meeting time doesn't coincide with receptions this year.

Scott King and others on the Local Arrangements Committee inform us that DC has a very large and active gay and lesbian community, and that we will have plenty of opportunity to share in that culture during the conference. The main conference hotels are just one metro stop--or a walk down the hill--to Dupont Circle, one of the glb centers of Washington. Bookstores, gift shops, restaurants and bars which cater to this population can be found here.

Although still tentative, we hope to have a sponsored SIG event at one of the local nightspots.  As soon as it is firmed up, we will give information over our listserve and have it posted at the conference.