Barbara Gittings
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Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) was a prominent American LGBT activist.
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[edit] Early life and education
Gittings was born in Vienna, Austria, where her father was serving as a U.S. diplomat. Later, along with her brother and sister, Barbara attended Catholic schools in Montreal before her family returned to the United States at the outbreak of World War II.
While attending Northwestern University, Barbara developed a close but non-sexual friendship with another female student, prompting rumors that they were lesbians, which led Gittings to examine her own sexual orientation. She ended up failing out of the school. [1]
[edit] Activism
She began her activism in 1958, founding the New York chapter of the first lesbian organization in the U.S., Daughters of Bilitis, and served as the chapter's first president for three years. During that time, she met Kay Tobin Lahusen, who would become her life partner for the next 46 years. From 1963 to 1966, she edited the organization's magazine, The Ladder.
In the 1970s, she took part in a campaigns to convince the American Psychological Association to de-list homosexuality as a mental disorder. [2] Though not a librarian herself, she also campaigned to include gay content in the collections of public libraries as a member (and longtime leader) of the Task Force on Gay Liberation of the American Library Association [3] now the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table[4]. As recognition for Gittings' contributions to the promotion of gay and lesbian literature, in 2002 the Round Table renamed their book award the Stonewall Book Award: Barbara Gittings Literature Award for Fiction. In 2003 Gittings received honorary membership in the American Library Association. Gittings' recollections of her early activism were part of the basis of the documentary Before Stonewall [5] and are featured in several anthologies. [6]
The Barbara Gittings Award, given by GLAAD since 2001, is named in her honor. [7]
Gittings died in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania after a long battle with breast cancer. She is survived by her life partner, Kay Tobin Lahusen, and a sister. [8]
[edit] References
- ^ Warner, David (April 22, 1999). 20 Questions: Barabara Gittings. Philadelphia City Paper
- ^ Jonathan Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (New York: Harper, 1976) ISBN 0060912111
- ^ Barbara Gittings profile via GLBT History Month
- ^ American Library Association. Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table
- ^ Kay Tobin and Randy Wicker, The Gay Crusaders (New York: Paperback Library, 1972; photo reprint, Arno, 1975)
- ^ Gittings, Barbara (1990). Gays in Library Land: The Gay and Lesbian Task Force of the American Library Association: The First Sixteen Years. in Daring to Find Our Names: The Search for Lesbigay Library History, James V. Carmichael, ed. (1998). Greenwood Press ISBN 978-0313299636
- ^ GLAAD (May 2, 2001). The West Wing, Equality Rocks, Harvey Fierstein, Barbara Gittings to be Honored at Washington, D.C., Ceremonies of 12th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
- ^ Associated Press (February 19, 2007). Barbara Gittings, early gay rights activist, dies at 75.
[edit] External links
- Barbara Gittings at the Internet Movie Database
- Barbara Gittings And Kay Tobin Lahusen Miscellany, 1965-1982 via Cornell University
