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Researching LGBTQ+ History at Trinity

Guide created for the PRIDE History Fair, November 2025.

Welcome

Welcome to the Reaching LGBTQ+ history at Trinity Guide.  Listed in this guide is archival material and newspaper database information to get you started in your research.  Take some time to review this guide on getting started with university archives research and be sure to schedule an appointment if you would like to come in an view material that is not available online.

Student group lineage:

  • Gay Support Group, 1983
  • Gay and Lesbian Support Group - GLSG, 1984-1988
  • Gay and Lesbian Interest Group - GLIG, 1988-1995
  • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Straight Alliance - LGBSA, 1995-2005
  • Sexual Diversity Alliance - SDA, 2005-2012
  • Trinity University PRIDE 

Notable names regarding early student groups:

  • David Kerr - Student
  • Steve Teepe - Student
  • Jeffery Graham - Student 
  • Ronald Calagaard - University President
  • Coleen Grissom - Dean of Students
  • Thurman Adkins - Assistant Dean of Students
  • O.Z. White - Professor, Sponsor
  • Matthew Stroud - Professor, Sponsor
  • Lisa Reitzes, Professor, Sponsor

 

    

       GLSG meeting announcement, Trinitonian, Fall 1984.

 

                               

According to Dr. R. Douglas Brackenridge, professor emeritus and historian on Trinity University, the first public discussion of sexual orientation occurred in the Trinitonian, on February 24, 1978 in response to anti-gay activist and singer Anita Bryant appearing in San Antonio.

 

Archival Collections and Files

This oral history project was conducted by Dr. Richard Reams in Counseling Services.  He interviewed former administrators, Coleen Grissom, Thurman Adkins, and former university president Ronald Calgaard.  Also interviewed were former faculty member Matthew Stroud, and alum Jeffery Graham, president of the Gay and Lesbian Support Group in 1986.  An interview with OZ White was lost due to technology.  These interviews focus on the 1980s.

This interview with alum David Kerr was conducted by student Amris Ramirez as part of the TU Treasures Oral History Project for the HIST 3467 Introduction to Oral History course in Fall 2024.  Kerr started the Gay Support Group with Steve Teepe in 1983.

  • Gay Support Group File

Located in Reverend Raymond Judd's papers, though limited, this file has instances on Reverend Judd's interactions with the Gay Support Group, students, and his insight into the Church's stance.

Located in the Campus and Community Office Records collection, this file has information on the iterations of LGBTQ+ organizations on campus, starting with the Gay and Lesbian Support Group through the Sexual Diversity Alliance.

  • Campus Climate Survey on LGBTQ Students File

Part of the Counseling Services records collection, these are summarized reports from surveys conducted between 2004-2015.

Collection contains drafts of poetry and plays written by David Matias, an alumnus of Trinity University who died of AIDS at an early age. Much of his work deals with issues of identity, coming out, and his illness. There are also three video recordings: a performance of one play, a poetry reading, and a guest lecture at a Harvard University class.

 

Digitized Publications

Trinity Resources

Newspapers