'When I plugged it into the wall, it was so heartwarming and heartbreaking to listen to it. A librarian and faculty member who had advised the group for years had stored it in her garage. Such devices are largely relics today but somehow the one used by Spectrum survived with its original tape.
If nobody picked up the phone, callers left messages on an answering machine.
Over time people from as far away as Mobile rang its office seeking support and referrals for services. When Spectrum, the undergraduate LGBTQ student group at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, launched in 1983 it became a resource not just for those on campus but for queer people living in that part of the South.
