Welcome to the new Yale GALA website!

 The Yale GALA Board of Directors is happy to welcome you to our new online home. The new website, funded by a generous grant from a member of the Class of '83, enables our growing national and international alumni—over 2,500 strong!—to connect, share, chat, plan events, and take a more active role in the organization on the local and national levels. So take a look around, join the Directory, and let us know what you think!

Most of our information is the same, but our biggest update and offering is the Member Directory, which can be used to reconnect with old friends or new colleagues. Not to worry: the Yale GALA directory is accessible only to members who have been verified through the Yale Alumni Directory, and your information will not be shared with non-members or any other entity for marketing purposes. We're excited to provide this directory to you in the spirit of creating new connections, professional and personal. 

Also, we can now archive and support your photo sets of our Yale GALA events on our new website with our flickr account. We're always looking for new programming ideas and outreach, so please feel free to reach out to Mickey or Natasha if you'd like to sponsor or organize an event.

As you know, Yale GALA does not ask dues. That’s why we are always grateful to receive your support, so we can continue to provide the services and events–including our new website–for alumni and students.

To give you an idea of all that Yale GALA does in one year, let’s…

Look back on 2011…

On Campus:

• Yale GALA provided funding for Trans/Gender Awareness Week, the second annual PRISM AIDS Benefit, Pride Month at Yale, and our first Lavender Graduation event with rainbow tassels for our graduates.

• GALA also provided funds for an LGBT conference for New Haven area high school students in fall and the first-ever New Haven LGBT prom, organized and coordinated by LGBT Yale student in spring.

• We also hosted our largest ever LGBT Community Dinner in February, with the Yale GALA Student Activist Award presented to Amalia Skilton. Amalia founded Fierce Advocates, an all-inclusive LGBT student advocacy group which works to strengthen ties between LGBT Yalies and local students. Amalia also attended the national “Creating Change”conference, where she presented Yale’s model for local youth organizing.

• Yale GALA offered four summer fellowships to students engaged in serving our LGBT community: Ilana Seager ’12 worked with LGBT Youth in Seattle, Peter Thompson ’13 dedicated his summer to a gay community center in Peru, Tatiana Lam ’12 worked with LGBT asylum seekers at Immigration Equality, and Ben Bernard ’11 helped lay the framework for the nascent Fairness West Virginia, which is headed by our own Bradley Milam ’10. 

Alumni Events:

• The women of Yale GALA hosted the Third Annual All Ivy LBT Women’s Mixer at the Yale Club in April.

• In May, Yale GALA took the lead in training current and future alumni leaders at the All Ivy LGBT Leadership Forum in San Francisco, co-sponsored by AYA, whose Executive Director Mark Dollhopf led the two-day session.

• For Yale’s Day of Service, GALA sponsored events in San Francisco with Glee’s Darren Criss performing with the Yale Glee Club and Duke’s Men of Yale to raise funds for two Bay Area anti-bullying programs… and in New York, our alums marched in the New York City AIDS Walk to raise funds for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

• In celebration of Pride 2011, Yale GALA hosted the annual Yale-Penn (Pre) Pride Party and the All-Ivy LGBT Post-Pride Mixer with both events reporting record attendance. 360 of our members also joined the Metropolitan Museum's Pride Party in July, enjoying a private viewing of Alexander McQueen's exhibit.

• In December Yale History Professor George Chauncey led a discussion on LGBT life at Yale for GALA members and guests in Los Angeles with Yale Film Studies Professor Ron Gregg presenting a 40th anniversary screening of The Last Picture Show at Sony Pictures Studios, followed by a discussion with Cybill Shepherd… while in New York, Jonathan Katz, former Director of the Larry Kramer Initiative at Yale, offered a lecture and a close-up look of the “Hide/Seek” Exhibit in a private tour at the Brooklyn Museum.

• Yale GALA ended the year by co-sponsoring “Sing Out, Raise Hope”, the Yale Whiffenpoofs benefit concert December 17 at Lincoln Center for The Trevor Project and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Once more joining the Whiffs was Darren Criss.

Of course, none of this work would be possible without the continued support of generous Yale alums like you. So consider making a contribution to Yale GALA today. Whether you donate $10, $100–or any amount–Yale GALA can maximize its impact, sponsoring events and programs for our alumni and supporting Yale LGBT students on campus, in our communities, and around the world. Plus, your gift is even tax-deductible as we are a 501(c)3 organization!

We thank you for your support and look forward to seeing you at a Yale GALA event in the coming months—and hearing from you on and through our new website!

Sincerely,
Your Yale GALA Board of Directors