Kevin M. Bailey Collection

Identity elements

Reference code

TxAM-CRS C000068

Name and location of repository

Level of description

Collection

Title

Kevin M. Bailey Collection

Date(s)

  • 1976-1990 (Creation)

Extent

1 box

Name of creator

Biographical history

Kevin Bailey started out as a Chemistry major at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in the mid-1980s.  He was elected secretary of Gay Student Services (GSS) in 1984 and later became the organization’s historian and archivist.  In the late 1980s, Kevin took some time off from school to work and travel, returning to complete his MIS degree in 1993.  After the 1976 GSS lawsuit for campus recognition bounced through the courts and the District Court’s pro-TAMU decision was overturned, the case in August 1984 was bound for the Supreme Court.  In the wake of the Appeals Court’s decision to overturn the District Court’s ruling, Bailey, and newly elected GSS president, Marco Roberts, mobilized a publicity campaign for the organization.  GSS had grown and matured by the mid-eighties with most of its founding members graduated.  Internal tensions and personality conflicts were rife in the GSS during this time.

Content and structure elements

Scope and content

This collection covers A&M Gay Student Services (GSS), Gayline, GSS Roommate Locator Service, and campus attitudes toward homosexuality and the LGBT community at the university before and after A&M officially recognized GSS as a campus organization.

Some material dates back to 1976, while other documents go as late as 1990. The bulk of the contents are from 1983-1986, being the period when the GSS lawsuit for recognition was ongoing to when litigation ended in July 1985, giving GSS official recognition. Media coverage over the issue of gay and lesbian students at A&M heated up in the fall of 1984 as GSS awaited a new court ruling. Most of the collection is local, given its subject, but also included are regional LGBT news and national entertainment news regarding LGBT persons.

System of arrangement

The majority of this collection is organized thematically.

Conditions of access and use elements

Conditions governing access

Physical access

These materials are stored offsite and require additional time for retrieval.

Technical access

Conditions governing reproduction

Languages of the material

  • English

Scripts of the material

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Finding aids

Acquisition and appraisal elements

Custodial history

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Accruals

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Notes element

Specialized notes

Alternative identifier(s)

Description control element

Rules or conventions

Sources used

Archivist's note

Finding Aid Authors: Hillary Anderson, Fall 2014.

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