The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Gender and Sexual Identity will host the dedication of the Louis Crompton Historical Marker at 10 a.m. June 20 on the south lawn of Andrews Hall with reception to follow.
Along with the Commission, other sponsors include the Chancellor’s Office, the LGBTQA+ Resource Center and History Nebraska.
Speakers for the event will include Chancellor Ronnie Green, Corrie Svehla, chair of the Chancellor’s Commission on the Status of Gender and Sexual Identity, Timothy Schaffert, professor and director of the Creative Writing Program, Autumn Langemeier, historical marker program coordinator for History Nebraska, and Pat Tetreault, director of the LGBTQA+ Resource Center and Women’s Center.
RSVP for the event here.
Crompton joined the English department at the University of Nebraska in 1955, retiring in 1989. During his career, he gained an international reputation as a scholar of the works of George Bernard Shaw. In 1970, Crompton taught a gay studies class at the university, the Proseminar in Homophile Studies, the first fully approved course offered in the United States, an action that raised LGBT awareness in academia, Nebraska, and the nation.
In the early 1970s, Crompton became the faculty adviser for the Gay Action Group, forerunner of today’s Spectrum UNL, and also helped found the NU Homophobia Awareness Committee, which became the Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns. In 1974, Crompton co-founded with Dolores Noll (1930–2019) of Kent State University and others, the Gay and Lesbian Caucus of the Modern Language Association. His historical marker is the first historical marker in Nebraska that commemorates LGBTQA+ history.
