Jim Toy

WCBN-FM – CLOSETS ARE FOR CLOTHES – JIM TOY

SUMMARY:

A review of the history of initially an underground movement at the University of Michigan at a time when being gay in Ann Arbor was criminal. Toy details a history of the group, Gay Liberation Front, and its integration into the university culture and the beginning of the Lesbian and Gay office in the Student Activities Building on campus.

Image of Jim Toy
Jim Toy

BACKGROUND:


Jim Toy was attending University of Michigan in the 1960s while working for a progressive Episcopal Church in Detroit. At that time, being gay was living in an “underground” culture – no gay bookstores, pride-parades, or university support groups. Religious institutions called homosexuals sinful, law enforcement considered the behavior criminal, and the medical profession recommended therapy as the best solution to what was otherwise considered an illness. By the early 1970s members of a group known as The Gay Liberation Front helped negotiate with the Student Affairs division of the University of Michigan to have the university provide meeting space and eventually a room with two staff members — an office founded to address the needs of lesbians and gay men. Those first staff members were Jim Toy and Cyndi Gair. It was a surprising supportive and forward-thinking response by the university. Listen to Jim talk about the services office and hear about its progress some 25 years later. The office is now known as The University of Michigan Spectrum Center. Toy retired 2008.

PRODUCTION NOTES:

The interview was recorded at a time when Jim Toy was the coordinator for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Programs Office (LGBPO).

The University of Michigan has an inclusive organization known as THE SPECTRUM CENTER, founded in 1971.

RECORD UPDATED: 2024-07-30

PARTICIPANTS:

David Christopher Meitzler (Producer/Host)
George Hardnett (Producer/Host)
David Gross (Engineer)
Peg Caton (Contributer)
Jim Toy, Ph.D.

ORIGINAL BROADCAST:

1992-10-05

RECORDED AT:

WCBN Studio, Student Activities Bldg, Ann Arbor MI USA

LINKS OF INTEREST:

U of M Spectrum Center: https://spectrumcenter.umich.edu/

Jim Toy in the Pride Source News

https://pridesource.com/article/jim-toy-just-received-his-honorary-doctorate-from-u-m-heres-what-the-pioneering-lgbtq-activist-told-us

NBC News Feature on Jim Toy

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/michigans-first-publicly-out-citizen-still-fighting-lgbtq-rights-n369701

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