Lionel Cuffie was a Rutgers College sophomore and black-rights activist in the fall of 1969 when he founded the Student Homophile League, the second gay rights student group in the nation. ⁣ ⁣ Being the first group formed following that summer's Stonewall uprising in New York's Greenwich Village, Cuffie hopes the group “would ultimately aid in the breakdown of social and political persecution and discrimination directed against minority groups.” ⁣ ⁣ While Cuffie had emphasized the link of the group to the struggle for civil rights, the SHL like many other gay and lesbian organizations put much of its initial energy into creating spaces that supported and nurtured those who came out as gay. ⁣ ⁣ At the time, gay students at Rutgers only had a limited number of ways to meet other gay students-at Manny’s Den in downtown New Brunswick or by “the wall,” the stone fence at the foot of Old Queens along Hamilton Street. ⁣ ⁣ Cuffie graduated in 1972 and went on to inspire young activists across ...