Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse owner Philip Rafshoon has been named the winner of the 2011 Alumni Legacy Award by Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. He is the first openly gay person to receive the award.

“I think it’s just phenomenal that they’ve awarded it to a very openly gay person who has done a lot of work in the LGBT community,” Rafshoon told us this morning.

The Fenuxe 50 member is a 1983 graduate of Georgia Tech and has not been involved with the school in awhile but told us he is looking forward to getting back involved with them again.

Rafshoon will be presented with the award at Georgia Tech’s Founder’s Day awards ceremony and luncheon on March 15. It will come just days after his return from Mexico for a trip celebrating his March 8 birthday.

“It’s a real nice birthday gift,” he says.

Photo credit ProjectQAtlanta.com

Walking onto a college campus in Atlanta for the first time in years is a whole new experience if you’re LGBT. Gay students and faculty are proud and not afraid to assert their authority to get their rights. The roots of this validation grew out of the campus LGBT groups, who provide meeting places and a sense of community to Atlanta’s gay scholars. Here’s the FENUXE 411 on Atlanta’s largest, gayest campus groups!

Emory University Office of LGBT Life

Emory’s gay group started in 1991 and quickly went to work arranging a large protest in response to an incident in which two gay students were harassed. The protest led to an expansion of the Office of LGBT Life’s resources which later helped the group secure employment protection and domestic partner benefits for Emory’s gay students and faculty. The group continues to fight for the LGBT community with multiple programs and organizations within the LGBT Life office to keep Emory’s gay community safe and connected.

http://www.emory.edu/CAMPUS_LIFE/LGBTOFFICE/

Georgia State Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity

“The Alliance” is Georgia’s first gay-straight student alliance. Founded in 1982 with just a handful in attendance, the group’s numbers have skyrocketed to include over 700 members. The Alliance meets in a different room on campus every Thursday night and gets together for a variety of events including cookouts and Braves games. Make sure to swing by the State Ballroom at the Student Center for their popular spring and fall drag shows.

www.gsualliance.com

Georgia Tech Pride Alliance

Due to the forced secrecy of gay people at the time, no one is sure which gay group was Georgia Tech’s first. What is known is the Gay and Lesbian Alliance (GALA) got its charter passed by the Student Government Association in 1988 by a single vote on a highly conservative campus. Later renamed Pride Alliance, the group flourished with the times and now meets regularly on and off campus for volunteer opportunities and planning sessions. Stop by their office and pick up a copy of FENUXE while you’re there!

http://www.pride.gatech.edu/