“My Identity is Not Negotiable” - Remembering Louie Crew

Remembering Louie Crew by Shane Olsen 

As we celebrate Pride Month this June at the UWSP Archives, it’s an opportune time to reflect on our collections and consider how well they capture the history of LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff at UWSP. While we hold several collections detailing the LGBTQ experience on campus, this history is often fragmented and incomplete. These gaps can be partly attributed to the hostility LGBTQ individuals have faced both on campus and in the community over the years. Due to the constant threat of harassment, many in the LGBTQ community may not have felt safe creating and sharing records that would later become part of UWSP’s historical record.

Traditional archival practices often exclude LGBTQ histories. Archival theorist Terry Cook explains that archivists historically were not trained to actively seek out records to include in their institutions’ collections. Rather, archivists were instructed to simply accept records as they were transferred from administrative units without considering whether the records painted a complete picture of their institution’s history. This oversight has often created an incomplete and biased historical record that leaves out the contributions and perspectives of marginalized groups.[1]

The UWSP Archives, however, holds significant records documenting the experiences of LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff. A key figure in these records is Louie Crew, an English professor, writer, and poet who taught at UWSP from 1979 to 1984. Crew was central to LGBTQ activism at UWSP and helped document the hostility LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff regularly faced on campus and in the community.[2]

Crew and his partner, Ernest Clay, moved to Stevens Point in 1979 with the hope that the community and campus would be more accepting of an openly gay couple than their previous home in Georgia. Unfortunately, they continued to face hostility in Stevens Point. Crew honestly and openly discussed his identity as a gay man, but he was shunned by his colleagues and received death threats on his home answering machine.[3]

Crew remained undaunted by the criticism he received. After being reproached by some English Department faculty for openly discussing his identity as a gay man, Crew wrote a memorandum to the entire department in which he stated: “My identity is not negotiable.”[4] Over the next five years, Crew became a fearless advocate for LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff at UWSP. One of his significant accomplishments was the 1981 publication “Faculty Homophobia at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.” Crew conducted this research study to quantify the hostility faced by the LGBTQ community at UWSP and to motivate campus leadership to address the homophobic culture on campus.[5] In addition to his formal research, Crew encouraged librarians to acquire books on LGBTQ issues for the UWSP Library’s collection[6], served as an advisor to the UWSP Gay People’s Union[7], and worked to persuade Faculty Senate to establish a campus policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.[8]

In addition to his activism for LGBTQ rights, Crew was a dedicated advocate for various social justice issues. In October 1980, he participated in the first Take Back the Night demonstration at UWSP that protested violence against women on campus and in the Stevens Point community.[9] He continued his support of women’s rights by sharing his poetry at Take Back the Night coffeehouse events in subsequent years.[10] In 1982 and 1983, Crew and fellow English professor Jim Missey organized demonstrations to protest several instances of racially motivated violence in downtown Stevens Point.[11] Crew was also involved in the Association of University of Wisconsin Faculties’ (TAUWF) advocacy work for improved faculty salaries,[12] and he led study groups that analyzed the Bible through a social justice lens.[13] Throughout his time at UWSP, Crew worked tirelessly to make the campus a safer and more inclusive place for all.

Crew left UWSP in 1984, partly due to the harassment he faced for his strong support of LGBTQ rights. He later taught in China and at Rutgers University, but he returned to Stevens Point in 2002 for a public reading of his poetry.[14] He continued to publish poems and writings throughout his life and worked to reform the Episcopal Church to be more accepting of the LGBTQ community.[15] Louie Crew passed away in 2019 at the age of 82.[16]

As we reflect on Louie Crew’s legacy, it’s important to remember that we know about his steadfast support for LGBTQ rights at UWSP because his activities were documented in meeting minutes, department memos, newspaper articles, and letters. These records were transferred to the Archives, where they allow us to write a history of events that took place over 40 years ago. History is created in archives, and the quality and scope of that history depend on the records that have been preserved.[17] The UWSP Archives is committed to collecting records that reflect the experiences of the entire campus community, particularly those who have often been ignored or overlooked in the past. 

This article was researched and written using primary sources available in the Nelis R. Kampenga University Archives and Area Research Center. To learn more about the holdings of the University Archives and how you can use primary sources in your research, contact Archives reference staff at archives@uwsp.edu.

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[1] Terry Cook, “‘We Are What We Keep; We Keep What We Are’: Archival Appraisal Past, Present and Future,” Journal of the Society of Archivists, Volume 32, Issue 2 (2011), pages 174-176. https://doi.org/10.1080/00379816.2011.619688

[2] Crew, Louie - UWSP Biographical Vertical File.

[3] Jeff Browne, “No escape from bigotry, gay finds,” The Milwaukee Journal, May 31, 1981, pages 1 and 14. In Crew, Louie - UWSP Biographical Vertical File.

[4] Memorandum from Louie Crew to English Department, October 15, 1979. In Crew, Louie - UWSP Biographical Vertical File.

[5] Louie Crew, “Faculty Homophobia at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point,” 1981, UWSP Faculty and Staff Publications.

[6] Letter from Louie Crew to Burdette Eagon, May 19, 1981. In Crew, Louie - UWSP Biographical Vertical File.

[7] Browne, “No escape from bigotry, gay finds,” page 14.

[8] John Anderson, UWSP News Release dated November 19, 1981. In 1981 11 16-30, News Service Press Releases.

[9] Sue O’Hern, “’Take Back the Night’ Rally Held,” The Pointer, November 6, 1980, pages 5-6.

[10] “Take Back the Night,” The Pointer, October 8, 1981, page 6.

[11] Michael Daehn, “Racial incident prompts varied response,” The Pointer, September 2, 1982, page 9; “Saturday march to protest assault,” The Pointer, March 31, 1983, page 8.

[12] Chris Celichowski, “TAUWF members debate walkout over poor pay,” The Pointer, July 21, 1983, page 3.

[13] Announcements section, The Pointer, October 9, 1980, page 23.

[14] “Former Point resident to give reading from poetry,” Stevens Point Journal, April 4, 2002, page 16. In Crew, Louie - UWSP Biographical Vertical File.

[15] Louie Crew Clay Biography. In Queer Newark Oral History Project, Rutgers University Department of History. https://queer.newark.rutgers.edu/interviews/louie-crew-clay

[16] Egan Millard, “Louie Crew Clay, Integrity founder and champion of LGBTQ inclusion, dies at 82,” Episcopal News Service, December 2, 2019. https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/12/02/rip-louie-crew-clay-integrity-founder-and-champion-of-lgbtq-inclusion-dies-at-82/

[17] Cook, “’We Are What We Keep; We Keep What We Are,’” page 174.