OutLaw Celebrates 30 Years
L-R: Professor Robert Volk, OutLaw's Faculty Advisor ('78); Michael Adams ('09); Christopher Valente ('09); Congressman Barney Frank; Andrew Novak ('09); Daniel Levin ('09); Arielle Kristan ('09). The students represent OutLaw's '07/'08 Executive Board. Congressman Frank was visiting BU Law to give an address on financial market regulation.
According to Frank Mockler (‘81), it was as though the Boston legal community saw a switch flipped in 1978. As the U.S. Supreme Court reached its landmark decision validating the constitutionality of affirmative action programs in the University of California v. Bakke, BU Law formed its own first gay group. “I was present at the dawn of a new era of tolerance,” said Mockler. “For whatever reason, there were a number of gay and lesbian students in my class, a critical mass, and it made it possible to organize a group. There were a few 2Ls and maybe a 3L or two, but most of the initial group were 1Ls like myself,” Mockler
recalled. “We came up with the name BUGALLA — Boston University Gay and Lesbian Legal Association.”
working alumni in the area, worked to make its presence known and to assist the legal community in areas where it could.
BUGALLA’s formation coincided with the creation of COGLLI (the Committee on Gay & Lesbian Legal Issues) at Harvard Law and an already present gay and lesbian group formed by BU undergraduates, Mockler and his classmates did not seek to create any more waves by making BUGALLA an official school group. “We weren’t a secret, but we certainly managed to stay under the radar. There were no elected officials and while our meetings were casual and irregular, it served as an effective support group for us,” stated Mockler.
BU Law alumnus John Ward (’76), was making his own mark on the Boston gay legal community defending men arrested in what were deemed “homosexually active” areas. He went on to found GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders) and joined several members of COGLLI to form the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association (MLGBA) which is still active today. When Mockler and his co-founders brought Ward to speak at one of BUGALLA’s early meetings, they were denied the right to a meeting space because they weren’t an administratively-recognized group. Nevertheless, they found a place to meet without any serious repercussions, and the group continued to grow as much of the outside world struggled to keep up.
Despite the changing scene in the Boston legal community, the majority of the general population was still of the mindset that to be “out” was tantamount to being unemployed. BUGALLA, along with several
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