The Wilde-Stein Club
Religion and the Homosexual Workshop. Photo: Steven G. Bull Papers, LGBTQ+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity Maine, USM Special Collections.
Originally named Gay Support and Action, a club was founded at the University of Maine in Orono with the express purpose of “creating a campus atmosphere where the Gay student can live in an open society free from repression and discrimination.” The group was granted probationary recognition as a student club in October 1973, at a time when homosexual acts were still a criminal offense in Maine.
The club later took the name Wilde-Stein, honoring Oscar Wilde and Gertrude Stein, two well-known queer authors. Wilde-Stein’s first year was turbulent. In December, the club drew press attention by sponsoring a dance for LGBT people in Bangor, with local religious leaders speaking out against the event in the press and to the University president.
The following year, Wilde-Stein proposed the Maine Gay Symposium, a statewide gay conference. Controversy surrounding the event grew, with the university attempting to delay the conference and removing the rights and privileges of an official student club, including meeting space, a campus mailbox, and library subscriptions. The Maine State Legislature threatened to withdraw funding from the University system unless the club was disbanded.
The conflict drew national media attention and culminated in the University of Maine Board of Trustees allowing Wilde-Stein to hold the conference while reaffirming their commitment to freedom of speech and the dissemination of ideas. The Symposium was finally held in April 1974, with more than 300 people attending.
The symposium, which later became the Maine Lesbian-Gay-Bi-Trans Symposium, continued for 25 years, ending in 1999. It brought national LGBTQIA+ leaders to Maine and created a place for Mainers to meet others with a shared worldview and experiences.
The club accomplished many things in its early years, including:
- Securing a written commitment from the head of the Maine Teachers’ Association that the organization would defend any teacher prosecuted solely because of their sexuality.
- Removing the question “Do you have homosexual tendies (tendencies)?” from the University of Maine’s health form for all job applicants.
- Supporting members who would go on to become leaders in the fight for LGBTQIA+ civil rights.
The Wilde-Stein Club remains active at the University of Maine today. Additionally, the University of Southern Maine holds the LGBTQ+ Collection, part of the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine. This consists of collections of personal papers and archives of organizations active in the LGBTQ+ communities of Maine. The manuscript collections date from the 1970s to the present.
