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Barbara Gittings (1932 - )
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 Gay
Crusaders (Homosexuality : Lesbians and Gay Men in Society,
History and Literature) by
Kay Tobin, Randy Wicker
This first-and so
far only-collection of biographical sketches of American Gay
activists vividly communicates, through their personal stories, a
sense of the concerns, ideas, and feelings motivating a variety of
Gay liberationists between 1955 and 1972; it is an important
source on seventeen years of Gay movement history. The accounts
are derived from tape-recorded interviews conducted in 1971-72
with eleven male and four female homosexuals, supplemented by
quotes from published materials by and about them. The authors,
themselves long-time activists, chose their interviewees "for
their record of accomplishment in advancing the Gay cause, and for
the diversity of their contributions and viewpoints." Each of
the fifteen crusaders reveals what in his or her own experience
led to a commitment to change the conditions of life for Gay
people. The men interviewed are Troy Perry, Jim Owles, Craig
Rodwell, Dick Michaels, Frank Kameny, Jack Baker, Michael
McConnell, Marty Robinson, Lige Clark, Jack Nichols, and Arthur
Evans. The women are Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, Ruth Simpson, and
Barbara Gittings. The book includes sixteen pages of photos and a
"Symposium" section of comments by the interviewees on
such topics as psychiatry and "cure," revolution versus
reform, Gays in old age, confrontation tactics, Gays in politics.
The Gay Crusaders, issued originally as a paperback original, is
now first offered in a library edition.
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Barbara has been an activist since 1958,
"when there were scarcely two hundred of us in the whole
United States. It was like a club - we all knew each other."
In 1958 she established the first East Coast Chapter of the first
known lesbian organization in the United States, The Daughters of
Bilitis (DOB - founded in 1955 in San Francisco). She later edited
The Ladder, DOB's national magazine (1956-1972) from 1963
to 1966. She subtitled it "A Lesbian Review" and
introduced photo covers of gay women.
She marched in the first gay rights picket lines
in the mid 60s at the White House and The Pentagon (Washington)
and Independence Hall (Philadelphia). "It was risky and we
were scared. Picketing was not a popular tactic at the time, and
our cause seemed outlandish even to most gay people." She was
a charter member of the Boards of Directors of the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force (founded 1973) and the Gay Rights National
Lobby (founded 1976), which was the forerunner of the Human Rights
Campaign...
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From GayGate.com
Excerpt:
Barbara Gittings was born in 1932 in Vienna,
Austria, where her father was in the U.S. diplomatic corps. She
was educated in Catholic schools in Montreal, Canada. Enrolling at
Northwestern University to study theater, she became the target in
her freshmen year of rumors that she was a lesbian because of her
friendship with another female student. The incident led her to
gradually realize that she was, indeed, different from others. In
a 1974 interview with Jonathan Katz, Gittings recalled: "I
went to a psychiatrist in Chicago and told her about myself, and
she said, 'Yes, you are a homosexual.' And then she offered to
'cure' me. I didn't have the money for that, so I didn't go back
to her. Some people say, "She shouldn't have given you a
label." I disagree. I think she did me an enormous service,
because once I said, 'Yes, that's me, that's what I am,' I was
able to work with it. I had been living throughout my high school
years and first few months of college with this hazy feeling: 'I
don't quite know what's happening to me.' It was a fog of
confusion...
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By David Warner, Citypaper.net,
April, 1999
A gay activist long before people were even
calling themselves gay, Barbara Gittings has been fighting the
good fight for almost 50 years. She flunked out of her freshman
year at Northwestern because she was spending most of her time in
the library trying to find something that would help her
understand what it meant to be a lesbian. Her mission ever since
has been to tear away "the shroud of invisibility" that
allowed homosexuality to be defined in terms of crime and disease.
Editor of the pioneering lesbian journal The Ladder in the
mid-'60s, she was one of the first-ever gay demonstrators, a
member of the group that picketed in front of Independence Hall
every July 4 from 1965-69. A founding member of two national gay
rights organizations, she also served for 15 years as head of the
American Library Association's Gay Task Force, drawing attention
to gay literature through such unconventional tactics as setting
up a gay kissing booth at a Dallas ALA convention in 1971. After
many years in Philadelphia, Gittings, 66, now lives in her native
Wilmington, DE, with writer Kay Tobin Lahusen, her partner of 37
years. On April 27 during PrideFest, she will be honored at a
reception benefiting the Free Library's gay and lesbian literature
collection.
You've been called the Rosa Parks of the gay
rights movement.
I have nothing to do with that. I never thought
of myself as doing that kind of a singular act.… It was always
the result of a collaborative effort.
Talk about walking those first picket lines.
It was called annual Reminder Day. The purpose
was to remind the public that the guarantees of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness that are in the documents we celebrate on
July 4 are not extended to gay people.… It was scary. Picketing
was not a popular tactic at the time. And certainly our cause
wasn't popular...
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Philadelphia library opens Gittings collection
By Karen M. Goulart, © 2001
More than 100 people gathered Feb. 28 at the Balch Institute for
Ethnic Studies for the grand opening of the new Independence
branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, home of the new
Barbara Gittings Gay/Lesbian Collection.
Children and adults of all ages crowded the newly renovated space,
which was adorned with bundles of rainbow colored balloons.
Several excited community members scanned the full wall of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender related books, videos and
CDs shelved below a sign prominently bearing Gittings' name.
Gittings, a longtime gay civil-rights pioneer, attended the event.
Her eyes lit up, and an ebullient smile spread across her face as
she spoke to PGN about seeing the 1,500-item collection for the
first time at a Feb. 22 donor reception.
"It's a whole wall of the library's main room, which is
absolutely incredible," Gittings said. "I felt as though
they had brought a little bit of heaven to earth for
me."
Gittings and library officials believe the
collection is the second dedicated gay collection in the country;
the other is the James Hormel collection in San Francisco's public
library system. Gittings said she hopes some day, like the Hormel
collection, hers will act as a springboard for special
library-related events and programs.
The Gittings Collection does not replace the
existing gay section at the main branch of the Free Library,
located at 1901 Vine St., and no books already included in other
sections, such as politics or religion, have been moved.
This distribution is important to Gittings.
"We must insist that gay materials be integrated completely
in library collections where they belong," she said. "If
someone is looking for books about business, they should stumble
across books on gay business, or on religion or history -- they
may not go out of their way to a gay section, but if they see that
gay book incorporated in the regular collection, they might pick
it up, it might be something they hadn't thought of or considered,
and that's why we write the stuff."
Books in the collection range from mysteries to biographies to
"Ethan Green" comic collections. There is also a variety
of documentary and feature films available along with a selection
of show tunes, operas and classical, jazz, pop and New Age music.
Branch adult/young adult librarian Marianne Bombar said gay
periodicals will be found with all other periodicals. Books aimed
at gay teens will be found in the teen section, marked with
rainbow stickers, so young people will be less intimidated, she
said.
Bombar said she's eager for people to start checking books
out.
"Now we need people to come in and use the
collection; things that don't circulate don't stay, so if people
come and use the material, we can argue for more and get
more," Bombar said. "The need for shelf space is so
intense, it's like an item on a supermarket shelf: You have to
have what people want -- hopefully, people will want lots of these
items."
Gittings recalled being a teen-ager, and finding no books about
gay people at the library, as well as her longtime work on the Gay
Task Force of the American Library Association. These connections,
she said, made seeing the collection all the more wonderful.
John Cunningham, chief of branch and regional libraries and
Gittings' contemporary in the Gay Task Force of the ALA, recalle
the idea for a such a collection was being discussed, along with
ideas about how to raise funds for such an endeavor when
inspiration suddenly hit. He visited a June 2000 photography
exhibit by Gittings' partner, Kay Tobin Lahusen, at the William
Way Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center
chronicling Gittings' activism. Cunningham thought of the perfect
way to make the collection special, and raise the needed funds.
"A light bulb went off over my head ... we were approaching
different areas of the service community ... trying to do a
coalition of fund-raising, and thought of approaching the gay and
lesbian community, and were looking for a way to do fund-raising
and a tie-in for the collection, and, of course, Barbara was the
obvious choice to honor; but it was the Kay Lahusen exhibit that
actually made me think of Barbara as a way to bring all these
things together," he said.
A fund-raising campaign for the collection began Nov. 15,
featuring a committee chaired by Philadelphia philanthropist Jim
Bryson. Prior to that date, the committee raised $13,000 toward a
$35,000 goal.
According to Bryson, about $3,000 needs to be raised for the
collection. Still, he looked elated Feb. 28 as he strode about the
grand opening celebration.
"We're bringing gay and lesbian books, as such, out of the
closet in the Philadelphia Library," Bryson said. "And
it's completely fitting to have it named after Barbara Gittings a
lifetime civil-rights activist."
Response to the campaign, which included help from the William Way
Center, was strong and widespread, according to library spokesman
Randy Rosensteel.
"Some folks just responded as they would to any campaign
request, but some really got into it, where we got not only the
response card back, but little notes saying 'This is great!'
" Rosensteel said. "A Web site called gaytoday.com, one
of the editors ... put an item on the site about it and where you
could send contributions to, and we got donations from a man in
Denver... a donation from Chicago - it's a Philadelphia campaign,
but still we have had these responses from other parts of the
country, which is very nice and very gratifying for us."
Bryson fondly recalled his special connection to Gittings.
"Barbara Gittings and I were both in Independence Square in
the '60s -- I knew who she was, but she didn't know me,"
Bryson said. "I was up in my 10th-floor office at the Public
Ledger building. I was in the closet, while she was down on the
street making it possible for me to eventually come out."
Echoing Bombar, Gittings called on community members to use
the new branch of the Free Library.
"I hope that people will patronize this new library not just
because of the Barbara Gittings collection, but because libraries
are wonderful places," Gittings said. "They're full of
happy surprises, they're full of gay things, and they're full of
non-gay things, and they're just a lot of fun to play around
in!"
Information:
 | The Barbara Gittings Lesbian/Gay Collection
features about 1,500 items including a variety of books,
movies, CDs and audio books. |
| The Independence branch features more than
50,000 items, 12 computers with free Internet access, and an
assisted technology workstation for the visually impaired. |
| In addition to the Barbara Gittings
Gay/Lesbian Collection, the branch features a Chinese
collection and a children's collection in memory of local
pediatrician Dr. Daniel Barol. |
| Funds for the Gittings collection remain
about $3,000 short of its goal, and contributions are being
accepted at: Development Office, Free Library of Philadelphia
Foundation, 1901 Vine St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19103.
Contributors should be sure to indicate that the donation is
to be used for the Gittings collection at the Independence
Branch. |
| The Independence branch of the Free Library
of Philadelphia is located in the Balch Institute of Ethnic
Studies, 18 S. Seventh St. Hours: noon to 8 p.m. Mondays and
Wednesdays; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays;
and 1 to 5 p.m. Thursdays.
For more information, call (215) 685-1633; Web site: www.library.phila.gov |
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
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| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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