Student Protest in the 1970s:The Gay Student Union and the Military
Abstract
Student Protest in the 1970sThe Gay Student Union and the Military SAGE Publications, Inc.1978DOI: 10.1177/089124167800700104 Carol A.B. Warren Joann S. DeLora CAROL A.B. WARREN is an Assistant Professor m the Department of Sociology at the University of Southern California. Her research mterests include problems of sexual identity and the effects of labeling. She is author of Identity and Community in the Gay World. JOANN S. DeLORA is affiliated with San Diego State University. There is a large, learned and ingenious literature on the causes of student unrest... this literature ... is already acquiring a musty odor and passing into history [Cohen, 1973: 276]. Although the 1970s-unlike the 1960s-are not known as a decade of student unrest, not all student protest has passed into history. This paper is an analysis of a recent attempt of the Gay Students Union of Western University to challenge the presence of the ROTC on campus. This challenge reflects both general features of student protest and special problems of activism by sexually stigmatized minorities. SOCIAL PROTEST Both Turner and Killian (1972) and Lyman and Scott (1970) distinguish between reformist and rebellious social activism as modes of seeking social change. Revolutionary movements seek the radical