Initially known as The Bloomington Gay Liberation Front in 1970, the BGLF formed alongside many other similar organizations across the nation in the wake of the Stonewall uprising in 1969 and was at first intended as a radical political organization and protest group. The group quickly became more of a social organization and changed its name to the Bloomington Gay Alliance in 1971. With this name change, many women left the organization to organize separately. Over the next several years, talks continued with the desire to make the organization more representative of women as well as men. To this end, the group underwent structural changes such as adding a co-chair position so that it would be headed by one man and one woman at all times, and in 1981, changed its name again, to become The Bloomington Gay and Lesbian Alliance. This organization sponsored many protests and an annual "Gay Awareness" conference, established a telephone "rap line," called regular meetings, and coordinated a wide variety of subgroups including a speaker's bureau, legal groups, and advice and support groups among others. The group was active until at least 1981.