Pioneering Gay Activist Barbara Gittings Dies

[Dat_NYC-Guy]

I posted this in my 'In The News' thread but hardly anyone goes there - I am actually surprised no one posted this to the boards. To be honest I am sort of sad to see that Anna Nicole Smith gets tons of thread space immediately and Barbara Gittings, who did so much for our community, was not even mentioned - unless it was posted somewhere else and I missed it.

David


Pioneering Gay Activist Barbara Gittings Dies
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: February 19, 2007 - 12:01 am ET


(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Gay rights pioneer Barbara Gittings has died at the age of 75 from a lengthy and brave battle with breast cancer.


Gittings death was announced Sunday by fellow activist and Philadelphia Gay News publisher and friend Mark Segal announced today.


Gittings first came to the public spotlight in 1965 when she and a handful of gay men and lesbians held demonstrations outside the White House and Independence Hall seeking equal rights for homosexuals.


"These were the first such demonstrations in American history and began an era of gays coming out of the closet. Gitting involvement in the gay rights movement started in the late 1950s when she helped organize the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis," said Segal.


It was there she met her life partner Kay Lahausen, who has been by her side for 46 years.


Gittings other accomplishments include head of the American Library Association's Gay Task Force.


In 2003 The American Library Association presented Gittings with it's highest honor, a lifetime membership.



She was an active cornerstone in the campaign that led to the American Psychiatric Association dropping its categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973.
Gittings was an early community journalist. She edited the D.O.B. publication "The Ladder" from 1963-66 and worked with Lahausen on her 1973 book "The Gay Crusaders."


On July 2, 2005 Gittings and Lahausen attended the unveiling of the first official historic marker in the nation recognizing the Gay Rights Struggle. The marker, placed by the Pennsylvania Historic Commission, is located directly across the street from Independence Hall in Philadelphia.


Gittings continued to make appearances, even accepting an award from the American Psychiatric Association this past fall, but ill health finally led her and Lahausen to an Assisted Living Facility in Kennet Square, PA, where she went into a coma Sunday morning.



Sunday night she passed away with Kay at her side.


Along with Lahausen, Gittings is survived by her sister Eleanor Gittings Taylor of San Diego, California.


Lahausen has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Barbara's memory to Lambda Legal Defense Fund.



A memorial is currently being planned and details will be announced at a later date.
©365Gay.com 2007

[FeistyGirl]

Who is Barbara Gittings?

(http://www.yffn.org/admin/pride/index.html)


Barbara Gittings, (1932- ) has been a gay activist since 1958, "when there were scarcely two hundred of us (gay activists) 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 lesbian organization in the United States, the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), founded in 1955 in San Francisco. From 1963 to 1966 she edited THE LADDER, DOB's pioneer national magazine. She subtitled it A LESBIAN REVIEW and introduced photo covers of gay women, a victory over the pervasive gay invisibility of the time.

She marched in the first gay rights picket lines in the mid-60s at the White House and the Pentagon and at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. "It was risky and we were scared. Our protests 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.

From 1971 to 1986 she headed the Gay Task Force of the American Library Association and edited its "Gay Bibliography" and other gay reading lists. She wrote a brief history of the group called "Gays in Library Land" which was published in 1990 and is reprinted in DARING TO FIND OUR NAMES, edited by James V. Carmichael, Jr. (Greenwood Press, 1998). She also starred in the first-ever gay kissing booth, called "Hug a Homosexual," run by the gay librarians' group at the 1971 annual convention of librarians. Her campaign to promote gay materials and eliminate discrimination in libraries has been recognized by an honorary lifetime membership conferred by the American Library Association in 2003.

In the 1970s, she was on a panel at the American Psychiatric Association challenging anti-gay views. She produced three gay exhibits at APA conventions: "Gay, Proud and Healthy," "Homophobia: Time for A Cure," and "Gay Love: Good Medicine." She was also fairy godmother to the emerging caucus of lesbian and gay psychiatrists.

She has addressed over 400 audiences, gay and non-gay, and especially enjoys running workshops such as "Lavender Leverage: How You Can Make a Difference" and lecturing on "Gay and Smiling: Tales From Our Fifty-Five Years of Activism."

She served on the first board of the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund, which promotes philanthropy to benefit the gay/lesbian community in the Philadelphia region. From 1998 to 2002 she served on the Endowment Committee for the Hormel Center Gay and Lesbian Library at San Francisco Public Library. She is a member of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Human Rights Campaign, American Civil Liberties Union, Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Service members Legal Defense Network, the gay/lesbian TV show "In the Life," and the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses.

She appeared in the classic 1987 documentary film "Before Stonewall" and its 1999 sequel "After Stonewall," and she is featured in the 1998 documentary "Out of the Past." She is also in the 2001 PBS documentary "Gay Pioneers."

She and her longtime partner Kay Tobin Lahusen are now organizing more than forty years' worth of movement memorabilia--correspondence, artifacts, publications, photographs, and much more---for future distribution to gay/lesbian archives. In June 1999 she chaired a panel on "Daring to Save Our History: Gay and Lesbian Archives" at the annual conference of the American Library Association. In spring 2001, the Barbara Gittings Gay/Lesbian Collection of circulating materials was opened in her honor at the Philadelphia library's Independence Branch.
"Also I continue to march, to boost the cause, to give practical
help, and to cheer other activists and supporters," she said.




RIP(f)

[Dat_NYC-Guy]

Thanks for posting that. I've been to the Lesbian Archives in Brooklyn to do some research in the past and read through some of the old editions of The Ladder - it is amazing to think of how they used to be mailed and such a frightening time to be a lesbian - to even think of publishing something like that in that day and age PLUS mail it in the US Postal Service where they could have been in trouble for mailing 'perverted pornography' - no internet service in those days - that mailing was a light in the darkness during those days. She was an extraordinary woman and will be missed. I'm disgusted that Paris Hilton was a Grand Marshall in the Hollywood Pride March the other year - what the hell has Paris Hilton done for our cause? Barbara and others like her are the real heroes.

David



Who is Barbara Gittings?

(http://www.yffn.org/admin/pride/index.html)
Barbara Gittings, (1932- ) has been a gay activist since 1958, "when there were scarcely two hundred of us (gay activists) 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 lesbian organization in the United States, the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), founded in 1955 in San Francisco. From 1963 to 1966 she edited THE LADDER, DOB's pioneer national magazine. She subtitled it A LESBIAN REVIEW and introduced photo covers of gay women, a victory over the pervasive gay invisibility of the time.

She marched in the first gay rights picket lines in the mid-60s at the White House and the Pentagon and at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. "It was risky and we were scared. Our protests 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.

From 1971 to 1986 she headed the Gay Task Force of the American Library Association and edited its "Gay Bibliography" and other gay reading lists. She wrote a brief history of the group called "Gays in Library Land" which was published in 1990 and is reprinted in DARING TO FIND OUR NAMES, edited by James V. Carmichael, Jr. (Greenwood Press, 1998). She also starred in the first-ever gay kissing booth, called "Hug a Homosexual," run by the gay librarians' group at the 1971 annual convention of librarians. Her campaign to promote gay materials and eliminate discrimination in libraries has been recognized by an honorary lifetime membership conferred by the American Library Association in 2003.

In the 1970s, she was on a panel at the American Psychiatric Association challenging anti-gay views. She produced three gay exhibits at APA conventions: "Gay, Proud and Healthy," "Homophobia: Time for A Cure," and "Gay Love: Good Medicine." She was also fairy godmother to the emerging caucus of lesbian and gay psychiatrists.

She has addressed over 400 audiences, gay and non-gay, and especially enjoys running workshops such as "Lavender Leverage: How You Can Make a Difference" and lecturing on "Gay and Smiling: Tales From Our Fifty-Five Years of Activism."

She served on the first board of the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund, which promotes philanthropy to benefit the gay/lesbian community in the Philadelphia region. From 1998 to 2002 she served on the Endowment Committee for the Hormel Center Gay and Lesbian Library at San Francisco Public Library. She is a member of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Human Rights Campaign, American Civil Liberties Union, Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, Service members Legal Defense Network, the gay/lesbian TV show "In the Life," and the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses.

She appeared in the classic 1987 documentary film "Before Stonewall" and its 1999 sequel "After Stonewall," and she is featured in the 1998 documentary "Out of the Past." She is also in the 2001 PBS documentary "Gay Pioneers."

She and her longtime partner Kay Tobin Lahusen are now organizing more than forty years' worth of movement memorabilia--correspondence, artifacts, publications, photographs, and much more---for future distribution to gay/lesbian archives. In June 1999 she chaired a panel on "Daring to Save Our History: Gay and Lesbian Archives" at the annual conference of the American Library Association. In spring 2001, the Barbara Gittings Gay/Lesbian Collection of circulating materials was opened in her honor at the Philadelphia library's Independence Branch.
"Also I continue to march, to boost the cause, to give practical
help, and to cheer other activists and supporters," she said.




RIP(f)

[FeistyGirl]

Thanks for posting that. I've been to the Lesbian Archives in Brooklyn to do some research in the past and read through some of the old editions of The Ladder - it is amazing to think of how they used to be mailed and such a frightening time to be a lesbian - to even think of publishing something like that in that day and age PLUS mail it in the US Postal Service where they could have been in trouble for mailing 'perverted pornography' - no internet service in those days - that mailing was a light in the darkness during those days. She was an extraordinary woman and will be missed. I'm disgusted that Paris Hilton was a Grand Marshall in the Hollywood Pride March the other year - what the hell has Paris Hilton done for our cause? Barbara and others like her are the real heroes.

David


I agree. Paris Hilton??? WTH??? I wonder how many of us today would have Barbara's guts.

[Bijoux]

Anyone have a picture of Barbara? Was she butch or femme?
Bijoux

[FemmeNextDoor]

***bump***

[drvnsnow]

http://www.gaytoday.com/garchive/people/06239701pe.jpg

http://www.gaytoday.com/garchive/people/062397pe.htm

There are several pictures of Barbara at the above link (her companion, Kay, as well). I wouldn't necessarily classify her as butch or femme based on her pics; she wore pants and dresses, and I haven't read anything specific about her that said she ID'd as either.

I remember her from several documentaries about early gay activism. A very sad loss.