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Main article on the Leonard Matlovich visit to SIUE

In the middle 1970s Leonard Matlovich became one of those much in-demand stars of the lesbian and gay community of the time. He was a decorated veteran wht three tours of duty in the Vietnam War and a technical sergeant who had also become an expert in race relations. It wasn't until 1973, when he was almost 30, that he came to explore the possibility that he might be gay, and began to come out to his friends, but still concealed his sexual orientation from his commanding officer.

Matlovich had also become aware of the organized gay movement through reading an article by activist Franklin Kameny. Kameny had counseled other gay military personnel, and so Matlovich met with him. Kameny told Matlovich that he had long been looking for a gay service member with a perfect record to create a test case to challenge the military's ban on gays. Kameny and Matlovich spent months working with ACLU lawyers in considering how to make his situation into a test case for gay discrimination similar to the Brown vs. Board of Education case for blacks denied school attendance. In March, 1975 Matlovich handed his commanding officer a well-crafted letter. When Matlovich's administrative discharge hearing occurred in September, 1975, he was offered exoneration if he would sign a statement pledging to never practice homosexuality again, which he declined. Eventually he ended up with a Honorable Discharge in October, 1975. Matlovich then sued for reinstatement. After an interminably long process with the Air Force delaying and refusing action, five years later, a U.S. District Court judge ordered his reinstatement and promotion. But the Air Force also offered Matlovich a financial settlement, which he accepted in light of the realization of the difficulty of reentering service under such difficult circumstances and a more conservative political climate. Matlovich became ill with HIV/AIDS in 1986 and died in 1988, but not before extending his activism to helping to raise public awareness of the AIDS crisis.

The middle 1970's were indeed exciting times for lesbians and gay men to come out of the closet and forge a life in the emerging community. Especially on college campuses, gay activist organizations became wide-spread, and SIUE had been no exception to that rule. The campus organization Students for Gay Liberation (SGL) had formed in 1973, and in early 1974 had organized a quite effective Gay Awareness Week. Frank Kameny had been invited to campus by SGL for that event. Then, early in 1975, a campus dispute over whether or not there would be a statement in the Affirmative Action Plan for SIUE protecting gays from discrimination came to a head. Inspired by the effectiveness of SGL, assistant professor Jim Andris published a week-long series of articles in the school newspaper, the Alestle, in order to educate the campus on the need for affirmative action for homosexual persons. In 1975 then, the spirit of gay liberation was very much alive and controversial on the campus of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

In that spirit then, the progressive University Center Board scheduled an appearance of Leonard Matlovich on campus and a panel discussion of the topic of discrimination against gays and lesbians. Sitting on the panel were Lisa Wagaman, a transsexual activist, Galen Moon, founder of the Metropolitan Life Services Center in St. Louis, Jim Andris, and Rev. Francis Crouch, an assistant pastor from the Metropolitan Community Church. The three Alestle articles included here are representative of both how the controversy had polarized the campus and the tenor of public discussion of the issue.