{"id":19417,"date":"2026-10-14T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T07:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/?p=19417"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T13:37:00","slug":"a-view-from-the-vault-out-in-public-jeans-day-and-gay-visibility-at-ud-in-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/2026\/10\/14\/a-view-from-the-vault-out-in-public-jeans-day-and-gay-visibility-at-ud-in-1982\/","title":{"rendered":"A View from the Vault: Out in Public - Jeans Day and Gay Visibility at UD in 1982"},"content":{"rendered":"

by John Caldwell, associate librarian and political and public policy papers archivist<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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In honor of National Coming Out Day on October 11, I wanted to highlight a moment of queer UD history. The April 16, 1982, edition of the newsletter <\/span>Out<\/span><\/i>, published by the University of Delaware Gay Student Union, announced the slate of events for \u201cLesbian and Gay Awareness Week- A Celebration of The Gay Lifestyle.\u201d The week began with \u201cJeans Day\u201d on Friday, April 30th. Jeans Day was a regular initiative by the Gay Student Union at the time, encouraging gay\/queer students to wear jeans as a sign of pride and visibility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Expanded upon in a letter to <\/span>The Review <\/span><\/i>by the Gay Student Union officers and staff published on April 30, Jeans Day \u201cattempts to demonstrate that Gays exist, and deserve fairer treatment than they receive.\u201d The display points out the presence of LBTQ+ people as active members of the campus community, and, importantly, shows someone who might still be afraid to come out that they are not alone and do not have to \u201csuffer in silence\u201d for being who they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Typewritten<\/p>\n

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The Gay Student Union at UD began publishing <\/span>Out<\/span><\/i> in 1977. The newsletter was published every two to three weeks during the academic year, providing information about Gay Student Union programs, resources for members of the LGBTQ+ community on campus and in the Newark area, national queer news, and artistic submissions including poetry and cartoon strips. Highlights from the April 16, 1982, issue includes housing assistance for the summer, a notice about the presentation of Kaposi\u2019s Sarcoma (known at the time as \u201cgay cancer\u201d because of its connection to HIV\/AIDS) in heterosexual patients, and a reprint of Kurt Erichsen\u2019s syndicated LGBTQ+-themed comic strip \u201cMurphy\u2019s Manor.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Typewritten<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Typewritten<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

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Special Collections has a small collection of <\/span>Out <\/span><\/i>news letters from 1981-1982 as part of the Chris Oakley collection of alternative press. Though limited in scope, the content of these newsletters point to a long history of LGBTQ+ activism and community aid on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Citation: <\/span>Out: University of Delaware Gay Student Union Newsletter<\/span><\/i> 6, no. 6 (1982). MSS 0471, Chris Oakley collection of alternative press, <\/span>Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Direct link to folder in finding aid: <\/span>https:\/\/findingaids.lib.udel.edu\/repositories\/2\/archival_objects\/163202<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Link to finding aid: <\/span>https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/static\/purl.php?mss0471<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cA View from the Vault\u201d showcases some of the unique, notable or rare items that are a part of the Special Collections and Museums holdings at the University of Delaware. Each month, we highlight a different work and share interesting facts or intriguing histories about it. If you are interested in seeing any of the materials featured in person or want to learn more about any work showcased in the series, please contact Special Collections and Museums at <\/span>AskSpec<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>AskMuseums<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Caldwell, associate librarian and political and public policy papers archivist   In honor of National Coming Out Day on October 11, I wanted to highlight a moment of queer UD history. The April 16, 1982, edition of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":19418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17,4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museums","category-news","category-special"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-22 00:06:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19423,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19417\/revisions\/19423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}