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SMU’s Women and LGBT Center is the only stand-alone center of its kind in the state of Texas.

The Human Resources Women's Center opened its doors in 1973 as one of the first university women's centers in the Southwest. In the seventies, the Center greatly expanded its role on campus. During this time, the President's Commission on the Status of Women was established as an oversight committee to examine issues of concern to female faculty, staff, and students. Through the years the commission has fought for benefits such as maternity leave, improved day care, and pay equity. The Women's Center provided a forum for the discussion of women's issues, housed volunteer services, advised the student YWCA, and lent specialized support to non-traditional aged women returning to college. Staff initiated sexual assault education and extensive outreach in campus residence halls.

In 1983, director Lindley Doran expanded the services available at the Women's Center by offering counseling related to gender issues. Marginalized groups such as the gay and lesbian student organization began to utilize the center as a safe gathering space. Change characterized the Women's Center during the nineties, as counseling services were centralized in the Counseling and Psychiatric Services Department at the Health Center and the Women's Symposium was incorporated into the Women's Center. Recognizing the need for enhanced connections between women on campus, the Center coordinated an annual reception for new female faculty. During this time, the gay, lesbian, and bisexual student organization was granted its charter through Student Senate.

The Food Chain began in 2001 with the goal of bringing women of color on campus together. In 2008, the words Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender were added to the center's mission statement and the Center formally changed its name to Women’s Center for Gender and Pride Initiatives, with the goal of showing its long commitment to the LGBT Community. Also in 2008, the center moved from its house on Fondren Avenue to a new central location in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center. In 2014 the Center’s name changed to its current name, Women and LGBT Center, to fully represent its dual role to the women and LGBT communities of SMU.

For over forty years, the Women & LGBT Center has promoted increased understanding of broad social, political, and economic issues, fostering the individual development of diverse populations and implementing systemic change. Whether through the Violence Prevention Program or the LGBT Panel Program, outreach into Wellness classes, Leadership Trainings or informal conversations with students the Women & LGBT Center strives to empower the people it serves and to promote lasting change in the university and beyond.