Resources
Research Resources
Northwestern University Library Resources for Gender & Sexuality Studies- Contact Anne Zald: anne.zald@northwestern.edu
University of Wisconsin Women's Studies Librarian's Office - Feminist Periodicals
The Univeristy of Chicago Library: Gay and Lesbian Studies
Gerber/Hart Library & Archives
- Provides access to LGBT Information Resource and Archives. Founded in 1981, G/H hosts various programs and events to dispel homophobia by providing affirming information about LGBT persons.
On-Campus Resources and Organizations
Center for Awareness, Response & Education (CARE)
633 Emerson St. Evanston, IL 60208; (847) 491-2054
CARE@northwestern.edu
The mission of CARE is to provide information, advice, crisis counseling, support, advocacy, referrals and education about sexual violence (including sexual assault, rape, intimate partner violence and stalking) as well as consent, healthy relationships and healthy sexuality to the Northwestern University community.
College Feminists
College Feminists is the premier feminist and only pro-choice organization on the Evanston Northwestern campus. We meet Mondays at 8pm at the Women's Center, discussing issues ranging from domestic violence to the college hook-up scene. We believe that every woman should be able to make her own decisions regarding abortion and birth control and we seek to educate students and the community at large about their rights to such decisions. We also work to counteract negative images of women and work against gender stereotyping. We believe in a progressive, informed, and open-minded community. We hope to accomplish these goals by rallying, supporting and educating one another in the Northwestern Community and also by creating a network with other college campuses nationwide.
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
633 Emerson St. Evanston, IL 60208; (847) 491-2151
24-hour crisis line: (847) 491-8100
CAPS provides counseling to individuals and groups. Housed within the Division of Student Affairs and with offices on both the Evanston and Chicago campuses, CAPS serves as the primary mental health service at Northwestern University. CAPS provides a set of core services, including clinical services, educational workshops, and consultation with faculty, staff, and parents. CAPS' mission is to assist all students in developing healthy minds and balanced lives, allowing them to overcome obstacles and achieve their academic and personal goals.
Gender and Sexuality Resource Center
The Gender and Sexuality Resource Center works to provide a safe space and act as hub for organizations, resources, services, and programs of interest to the Queer, Trans* and Allied community at Northwestern. Our aim is to increase visibility and awareness of issues surrounding gender and sexuality by uniting existing community entities and developing our own educational and outreach-oriented programming.
Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault (MARS)
Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault (MARS) is an all-male peer education group affiliated with CARE, CAPS, and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. Its purpose is to engage and educate men about the issues of rape and sexual assault.
Multicultural Center
1936 Sheridan Rd. Evanston, IL 60208; (847) 467-6200
Hours: Mon-Fri 8:30am-5:00pm
The mission of Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) is to provide quality services and programs that support and enhance the collegiate experience, particularly for under-served students. We seek to foster a learning environment that enriches the cultural, educational, professional, and social lives of students, providing opportunities for holistic development. Through advising, advocacy, and outreach, MSA is dedicated to an inclusive and diverse community and helps students excel individually and collectively.
Project ShoutOUT
Project ShoutOUT is an outreach student organization at Northwestern modeled off of the national "It Gets Better Project." The organization's main purpose is to deliver a message of hope to LGBTQ youth in need of support. Ultimately, Project ShoutOUT hopes to provide secondary students with the opportunity to enter into personal dialogue with NU students who have overcome bullying, to demonstrate through personal testimonies and peer mentoring, that life can and will improve for these students.
Rainbow Alliance
Office O (3rd Floor), Norris University Center
1999 South Campus Drive, Evanston, IL. 60208
The Rainbow Alliance provides a safe environment for members of the Northwestern Community to explore issues of gender and sexuality, to provide information and education, and to fight homophobia and heterosexism.
Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educators (SHAPE)
Housed within CARE, SHAPE’s mission is to stimulate discussion and awareness on issues surrounding sexual health and sexual assault through outreach education and events. The purpose of SHAPE is to increase students’ comfort with sexuality, to encourage sexually healthy behaviors, and to teach students how to recognize unhealthy and dangerous behaviors and attitudes regarding sexuality. We aim to provide a safe space for students to ask questions and find resources, including safer sex six packs.
Women's Center
2000 Sheridan Rd. Evanston, IL 60208; (847) 491-7360
The Northwestern University Women's Center is dedicated to fostering a campus climate that promotes equity and enriches the personal, professional and academic lives of all members of the University community, particularly women students, staff and faculty.
Off-Campus and Community Resources (National)
The Feminist Majority Foundation
The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), which was founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. In all spheres, FMF utilizes research and action to empower women economically, socially, and politically. Our organization believes that feminists - both women and men, girls and boys - are the majority, but this majority must be empowered.
Gay Liberation Network
The Gay Liberation Network is a grassroots organization comprised of LGBTQA activists that fight for social change in the form of immediate action, protests, vigils, etc. The Gay Liberation Network does not believe in single-issued politics and as such, is actively involved in the anti-war movement, movement for immigrant rights and against racism, movement to end the death penalty, etc.
Human Rights Campaign
As America's largest gay and lesbian organization, the Human Rights Campaign provides a national voice on gay and lesbian issues. HRC is a bipartisan organization that works to advance equality based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, to ensure that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund
Lambda is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, and people with HIV/AIDS through impact litigation, education, and public policy work.
The National Consortium of LGBT Resources in Higher Education
The combined vision and mission on the Consortium is to achieve higher education environments in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni have equity in every respect. Our goals are to support colleagues and develop curriculum to professionally enhance this work; to seek climate improvement on campuses; and to advocate for policy change, program development, and establishment of LGBT Office/Centers.
The National Directory of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Centers
The National Association of LGBT Community Centers exists to support and enhance lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community centers, which are engines of community organizing and liberation, and crucial to the health and strength of LGBT communities.
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF)
Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force was the first national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights and advocacy organization and remains the movement's leading voice for freedom, justice, and equality. The NGLTF works to build the grassroots political strength of our community by training state and local activists and leaders and organizing broad-based campaigns to defeat anti-LGBT referenda and advance pro-LGBT legislation.
The National Organization for Women (NOW)
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
National Women's Studies Association
NWSA is committed to the development of scholarship and research that incorporates disciplinary, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, multicultural, and/or global methods and perspectives to advance the study and knowledge of all women and to create critical dialogue on the production of knowledge about and related to all women and on the application of such knowledge to social and political practices and processes. To that end, we recognize the integral connection among scholarship, activism, and teaching.
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) is a national non-profit organization with over 200,000 members and supporters and over 500 affiliates in the United States. This vast grassroots network is cultivated, resourced and serviced by the PFLAG national office, located in Washington, D.C., the national Board of Directors and 13 Regional Directors.
Off-Campus and Community Resources (In Chicago)
About Face Youth Theatre
About Face Youth Theatre provides an innovative and rigorous arts-based series of programs that increase the safety, empowerment and leadership capacity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning youth and their allies (LGBTQA) in order to catalyze youth-led civic dialogue and action within schools and communities.
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
Since 1985, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) has led the fight against HIV/AIDS in metropolitan Chicago. AFC grants funding for local HIV/AIDS care and prevention programs, advocates for sound AIDS policy and increased public support for AIDS services, and through our Service Providers Council, develops and implements strategies for coordinating AIDS care and prevention services.
Center on Halsted
Center on Halsted's current services include support groups for youth and seniors; psychotherapy services; an info line for LGBT individuals and a hotline for HIV and STD concerns; prevention, treatment, and advocacy related to domestic violence; and a range of life-enrichment programs.
Chicago Abused Women Coalition
CAWC is committed to ending domestic violence. Using a self-help, empowerment approach, we provide a shelter for women and children, and counseling, advocacy, and a 24-hour hotline for people affected by domestic violence. We work for social change through education, service collaboration, and institutional advocacy.
Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame
The Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame is both a historic event and an exhibit. Through the Hall of Fame, residents of Chicago and the world are made aware of the contributions of Chicago's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and the communities' efforts to eradicate homophobic bias and discrimination.
Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival
The mission of Reeling is to recognize the important artistic contributions that lesbian and gay filmmakers have made to our culture; to educate the general population and sensitize them to lesbian and gay issues; to investigate the history of gays and lesbians in film, including the stereotyping that has been a major part of this history; and to counteract this stereotyping with valid, meaningful and diverse portrayals of gays and lesbians.
Chicago Foundation for Women
Chicago Foundation for Women supports the achievement of social justice through grantmaking and advocacy.
Chicago Women’s Health Center
Chicago Women's Health Center is a collective of women that includes health workers, counselors, outreach health educators, and doctors who work together to provide health education and affordable, respectful, and accessible gynecological and mental health care to women in the Chicago area. In 1975, a group of women healthcare providers and activists formed the health center for women in the community. We are the longest-operating women's health collective in the United States.
Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation
The Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation (CESO) is a 48-member coalition with the mission of working together to ensure the safety and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in Illinois schools through education, public policy, research and student involvement.
Creating Safe Schools Illinois - Formerly the Chicago chapter of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network)
The mission of Creating Safe Schools Illinois is to strive to assure that each member of every Chicago-area school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
Equality Illinois
Equality Illinois works to protect and defend the basic civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons in the state of Illinois.
Howard Brown Health Center
Howard Brown Health Center is the premier healthcare organization in the Midwest specializing in the unique medical and psychosocial needs for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.
Lesbian Community Cancer Project (LCCP)
LCCP's Vision is that lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women have appropriate and accessible health care in a supportive and bias-free environment. The Mission of LCCP is to advance the health and quality of life for lesbian, bisexual and transgender women through advocacy and public education.
NAMES Project Foundation Chicago Chapter
The AIDS Memorial Quilt began in 1987 as AIDS and gay rights activists made placards bearing the names of those who died and taped them to a public building resembling a quilt. In October 1987, 2000 panels of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt were displayed for the first time on the Capital Mall in Washington D.C.
Out at CHM (Chicago History Museum)
Discover gay and lesbian history through the Out at CHM program series. Now in its fourth year, Out at CHM will look at the history of gay and lesbian art, politics and culture through three sessions this year.
PRIDE Institute
The Pride Institute aims to provide gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgendered affirmative treatment for patients with dual diagnosis (psychiatric and substance abuse) problems. PRIDE offers both inpatient and intensive outpatient treatment.
Rainbow Families Illinois
Rainbow Families of Illinois is a non-profit, community-based organization that includes lesbian and gay parents and their children and those considering parenthood.
They are committed to protecting the right of LGBT people to raise children with love and integrity in a culture of justice, respect and belonging.