A look back: The first gay dance at Princeton

In a candlelit room with panoramic views of campus, couples kissed and held hands, dancing to a live band. It was a Saturday night in May 1973, a night that changed gay social life at Princeton forever.

The first dance of its kind at the University, the party was sponsored by the Gay Alliance of Princeton (GAP), a group that was founded in September 1972 by Arthur Eisenbach '74 and Judith Schaeffer '74 with the support of a handful of other students. For the first time ever, Princeton students could gather publicly for a party where same-sex couples could be intimate without worrying about hostile stares from across the room.

GAP "had absolutely no hassle with the University in organizing the event," despite the fact that Princeton was one of the last major universities to establish a gay students' group, Eisenbach told the Associated Press at the event in 1973.

"This is such a good thing," another man told the AP that night. "Some of the gays at Princeton need this kind of release."

The dance was open to all students and visitors over the age of 18. University proctors stood at the entrance to check for proof of age, just as they would have at any other 18-plus event on campus.

At least 300 people attended, the AP reported in a story that was published the next day in The New York Times. The article estimated that about 80 percent of those at the party were male and some were wearing women's clothing.

Dancers paid $1 to enter and listen to the Rutgers band Bad Taste and the Crabs, featuring Olga and the Fabulous Crabettes. Though the legal drinking age was 18, no alcohol was served at the event.

Posters announced the event as "Princeton's First GAY DANCE" and featured a stylized pen-and-ink drawing of a woman — or a man dressed as a woman — with swirling dark hair, long eyelashes and stars sparkling out of her mouth and eyes.

The poster for the next gay dance, held on April 5, 1974, had a drawing in the same style as the earlier one, this time of a kickline of three people in black top hats, bustiers and high heels.

Though the event was the first of its kind at Princeton and the largest held to that date in New Jersey, The Daily Princetonian did not write an article or editorial about the event.