Approved as a standing committee of the AALL Contemporary Social Problems (now Social Responsibility) Special Interest Section, founder Carol Alpert called the first meeting of the Standing Committee during the 1985 AALL annual meeting in New York City. Over the next decade, the Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues emerged as one of the most active and committed divisions within the American Association of Law Libraries. A constitution and by-laws governing the Standing Committee were proposed and adopted in 1992. What began as an informal group of lesbian and gay law librarians in 1985 has today evolved into a formal organization with 160+ members.

If the Social Responsibility SIS can be termed the "conscience" of AALL, then the Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues is certainly the "lesbian and gay conscience" of the Association. The Standing Committee has been and continues to be instrumental in promoting non-discrimination policies and diversity in all aspects of the employment and professional life of law librarians. Through Standing Committee efforts, sexual orientation was added to the Association's anti-discrimination bylaws and placement guidelines; a resolution on AIDS in the workplace was adopted by AALL; and the AALL Executive Board canceled a proposed 1998 annual meeting in Denver, due to the passage of the anti-gay Proposition Two in Colorado.

The Standing Committee's publication, "Sexual Orientation and the Law: A Selective Bibliography on Homosexuality and the Law 1969-1993," was published in volume 86 of Law Library Journal in 1994. A wide variety of educational programs have been sponsored by the Standing Committee, including ones on lesbian and gay legal collection development; AIDS; and lesbian and gays in the military. Although a Standing Committee mentor program was first started informally in 1991, a gay and lesbian mentor component was officially added to AALL's program the following year.