<p>I think the easiest way to explain Queer Alliance is to look at it this way: at some periods in its history QA has been the name of an umbrella LGBTQ organization and at others, the name of a group with a distinct agenda.</p>
<p>There have always been three or four different LGBTQ groups at Wesleyan. The names may change from year to year, but one has usually been the activist one; one has usually been more into socializing; two or three others may have racial, ethnic or gender identities. At one time, Queer Alliance was the umbrella group for all the others.</p>
<p>Beginning in the 1990s, however, QA became closely identified with the annual chalking incidents that would take place each year around Parents Weekend and Wesfest. That grew into a huge controversy around the issues of freedom of speech and what the university described as its right to protect school employees from a “hostile environment” (the chalkings were often sexually explicit):</p>
<p>[Dirty</a> Sidewalks, or Just Naughty? - Wesleyan Halts a Campus Tradition of Chalk Messages - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/14/nyregion/dirty-sidewalks-just-naughty-wesleyan-halts-campus-tradition-chalk-messages.html]Dirty”>Dirty Sidewalks, or Just Naughty?; Wesleyan Halts a Campus Tradition of Chalk Messages - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Since then, QA may have evolved into an underground organization. It is not listed among the current LGBTQ groups on the Student Affairs website. But, I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>