Todd Union
About Todd Union
Todd Union, named for George W. Todd, was constructed in 1930 and has served as a student center and the birthplace of the University of Rochester’s Gay Liberation Front (GLF).
The building was added to the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 2023, making it the first site in Western New York to be listed for LGBTQ+ significance. Todd Union was nominated based on its part in GLF’s origins, and the critical role GLF played in advancing of the movement for liberation that resulted in civil rights for lesbian and gay people on campus, in the city of Rochester, and in the surrounding area.
the gay liberation front
Among the most well-known organizations of the era was the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), a national coalition of radical homosexual groups looking to promote gay pride and combat the oppression of gay people in all aspects of society. Organized in New York City in the months after Stonewall, a committee of the Mattachine Action Committee withdrew and renamed itself the Gay Liberation Front. Chapters formed throughout the country in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia.
The GLF came to the University of Rochester students through two students who did not initially know one another. Undergraduate Larry Fine took out an anonymous advertisement in the May 8, 1970, publication of the Campus Times that read, “TAKE HEART BROTHERS, Gay Lib is coming!” Fine had recently began to realize his homosexual identity and visited San Francisco in search of a gay community. He returned to Rochester “fired up,” as he put it. In reality, the organizing force behind the organization was Ph.D. candidate Bob Osborn, who ran an advertisement in the September 1970 issue of Campus Times: “UR Gay Liberation Front will hold an interest meeting…Open to all people who believe that realization of basic civil rights for all minority groups must come from organized efforts.”
The University of Rochester’s GLF was established at an organizational meeting held on October 3, 1970, in Todd Union, the university’s student center. After an initial turnout of about 100 people, the group set up an office in Todd Union, Room 202-D. It was in this small room that the Gay Liberation Front established a library of books about homosexuality, resources for people struggling with their sexuality, and a hotline for those with questions and in need of advice or counseling. Todd Union’s central location was ideal for the GLF as the building was originally designed to be a hub for students to meet, explore their interests, and extend their knowledge beyond the classroom. One accomplishment of The University of Rochester’s GLF was the founding and publication of “The Empty Closet”. The Empty Closet is one of the oldest continuously published queer papers in the United States, and the oldest in New York State. The newspaper covers local, state, national and international news, as well as issues pertaining to the LGBT community.
