Dwindling Membership

The active membership has dwindled in the past few years, says Lin, who can remember BGLSA meetings a few years ago that were attended by nearly 50 students.

Now meetings typically draw about 20 to 30 people in the beginning of the year and as few as 10 to 15 students toward the ends of terms, according to Giannino.

Organization leaders say one main priority for the fall will be to expand and "empower" the BGLSA membership by reaching out to women and heterosexual students, as well as to first-years during Orientation Week.

"I worry about marginalizing BGLSA into an organization made up of drag queens and art fags, "Giannino says.

Lin says diversifying the BGLSA will require increasing its membership.

"We're going to get more people involved in BGLSA," he says. "BGLSA is a very inclusive group and it's a very diverse community. People should not be persuaded by their own stereotypes of what BGLSA is like. People should come to the meetings and take a look."

In addition to reaching out to more undergraduates, Lin says he would like the organization to form closer ties to the Harvard Leadership Council, a University-wide coalition of gay, bisexual and lesbian groups, to campaign for gay studies and a center for the gay community.

Lin would also like to reach out to other schools in the Boston community and to gay teens in Boston