Vanderbilt University

Though Vanderbilt University has a complicated history with social justice movements, there have been many faculty and students who have advocated for the rights of marginalized groups in Tennessee. From 1965-1998, K.C. Potter was one administrator who took a special interest as an advocate for LGBTQ issues on campus.

K.C. Potter grew up in Kentucky and graduated from Berea College, an institution long committed to social and economic justice. He later attended Vanderbilt Law School and joined the university staff as the Dean of Men in 1965. When the men’s and women’s departments merged, he became the first Dean of Students at Vanderbilt. Throughout the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, Potter mediated conflicts between students but also helped bridge the cultural gap between students and the more traditional administration.

These matters came to a head during the 1980s as the AIDS epidemic escalated. After a homophobic article was published in the student newspaper, Potter worked to create a support group for LGBTQ students. Initially, the support group met in secret, but Potter shifted the meetings to an on-campus home, which further validated students and lent credibility to their cause. The group petitioned the Community Affairs Board to create a policy that protected queer students on campus as a protected minority class. After several hearings, Potter and the students won. In 2018, Potter reflected on his work, giving all the credit to students. “These kids, they became my heroes.”

Dean Potter chose not to come out as a gay man while working at Vanderbilt, but after he retired in 1998, he met his longtime partner Richard. In 2008, the Euclid House at Vanderbilt was renamed the K.C. Potter Center, which houses the Office of LGBTQI Life.

Two additional Vanderbilt institutions have historically supported the LGBTQ community. In the 1970s, Vanderbilt University Medical Center began offering gender affirmation surgery. In 2018, the Clinic for Transgender Health was opened at the medical center, which provides comprehensive health service to transgender patients. The second organization is Vanderbilt’s Special Collections, which has made it a priority to collect and preserve materials related to LGBTQ history. In fact, they are one of the partners for the National Trust for Historic Preservation Telling the Full History Fund, which made this tour possible. They also assisted in digitizing over 100 reels from the Gay Cable Network.

This concludes our tour of Nashville’s LGBTQ history. Thank you for exploring this history with us—we hope you’ve been inspired by the stories of Nashville’s LGBTQ pioneers! Follow us on social media to learn more—@NashvilleSites and @NashvilleQueerHistory. You can also become a supporter today with a donation to Nashville Sites so we can continue bringing you stories about Nashville’s diverse history and culture. This is Marisa, signing off.