SAPC Family and Friends
History and Response
History:
Karen Johnson, Chuck Marshall and Shaun Pennington stood around in Shaun’s
room talking and joking one night. It was suggested jokingly that we should
start a gay club at St. Andrews so we could all get together and hang out.
Chuck suggested they call it “Family and Friends”, a play on the name of
the MCI campaign and using “family” the term many people use for the
association in the “gay community.” From the joking the talk became serious
and we discussed what would need to be done to actually create a club.
Karen suggested an advisor and offered to talk to him. Before we knew it
we were in meetings with people discussing the possibility, the ideas, the
road blocks. Once all those road blocks were cleared a constitution was put
together and the charter request was submitted for approval. However, the
three were not patient enough to wait the seven months it took to approve
the charter, so they began having meetings that Spring in March. The first
meeting was a smash. So many people showed up and many others intended to.
Officers were elected with ease and the club was off to a start. That first
semester was dominated by discussion and social events, and in the
following Fall began more outreach and educational events. The group
quickly became what the three had envisioned that night.
Response:
Many people often wonder what sort of response we had forming this group
in a small, religion-funded school such as St. Andrews. Admittedly there
were many doubts and concerns about possible responses, but we would not
let fears deter us. We would at least give it a try and deal with the
consequences. Our first meeting was packed, our first program was packed,
our first party was packed, in fact most everything we did was successful
and noticed. Our events were some of the most attended events at St.
Andrews. The negative response was to say the least anti-climactic. There
were few replies to the all campus emails the demanded that they not be
sent to these recipients, but little else. The group is well respected and
any opposition is silent.
