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The letters begin and end in alignment with the lambda symbol’s opening which creates a triangle of negative space and unifies both features within the shirt.
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The symbol is the Greek letter lambda and is emphasized through its large size in comparison with the “NYSCGO” letters. The second t-shirt caught my attention because of the unfamiliar symbol and acronym that the design of the shirt is comprised of. It is possible that Cornell students would have gotten involved in activism against Anita Bryant as there were many protests in Upstate New York around the year 1977 (Rinne). In 1977, Bryant and her organization, “Save Our Children”, began a campaign in Dade County, Florida to push policies that would deny gay people civil liberties and protection against discrimination (Haider-Markel). In addition to this intimated textual provocation, the shirt’s statement is a bold response to an inflammatory woman. It alludes to the f-word without actually using it because, at the time, curse words were almost never displayed on clothing. The words reference Anita Bryant, a prolific anti-gay rights activist and celebrity. In addition to the name change, the GLF credits The Black Liberation Front for making them a more forceful and active student group after the Willard Straight Occupation, the momentum of which likely inspired them to join demonstrations wearing their hand-made t-shirts (Beemyn 220). However, members of SHL concluded the word was passive and outdated. In 1970, the Student Homophile League changed their name to the Cornell Gay Liberation Front (GLF) in order to be “a little more confrontational” (Beemyn 220). The word “homophile” had been popular in the 1950s and 1960s because it detached the sexual aspects of gay people’s identities which made the public most uncomfortable (Cantwell, Hinds and Carpenter). Around 1969, the SHL began working with the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) which provided them with more resources, specifically a leftist printing company that allowed them to print informational flyers and newsletters and spread them around campus (Beemyn 218). This recognition of the importance of disseminating information connects with the later creation of the three t-shirts. Primarily, the founding of the SHL was fundamental in the t-shirts’ creation, and their use of gay symbols in the shirts’ designs was instrumental in their message’s delivery.įounded by Jearld Moldenhauer on May 10, 1968, Cornell’s Student Homophile League became the second queer student organization in the United States (Beemyn 205).
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According to records in Cornell University Library’s Human Sexuality Collection, withing the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, the students screen-printed and sold t-shirts as a means to raise money to attend the first gay pride march after the Stonewall riots in 1970. Members of Cornell’s Student Homophile League (SHL), the queer student group at the time, took advantage of the t-shirt’s political power and created three shirts for their own cause. At the time, t-shirts were newly emerging from their historic state as undergarments into a blank slate for designers and activists to advertise and disseminate information about pressing social issues (Harris). In 1973, The New York Times pronounced the t-shirt as “the Medium for a Message” (Taylor).