Whats a Val?
We’ve been asked this question so many times that we decided to explain our nickname online. When our group was created in 1992, our founders made up plenty of names for the group. Besides the name we obviously picked, the other serious contender was “Nashville Collegium.” As many of you know, one of Nashville’s oldest nicknames is “Athens of the South.” In Ancient Greece, male worshipers of the Goddess Cotys honored her by dressing in women’s clothes. The Greeks called a collection of worshipers a “collegium.” The inspiration for our group name came from the state’s famous Tennessee Volunteers or “Vols”. Vols then became “Vals” because it resembles “gals.” Some have attributed various acronyms to our name, such as “Vanguards for Alternative Lifestyles,” “Variations on Alternative Lifestyles, “Values of Adaptive Learning,” etc. (some are obviously better than others). Whatever the meaning, the Tennessee Vals we remain.
