Madeline D. Davis
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MADELINE DAVIS
B.A. in English, M.A. in American Studies/Women's History, M.L.S. in Library and Information Studies.
State University at Buffalo – Cataloger specializing in Italian and Spanish language materials 1965-69. Buffalo & Erie County Public Library System – Town of Cheektowaga. Children’s and Young Adult librarian 1969-1980 Buffalo & Erie County Public Library System - Chief Conservator and Head of Preservation until retirement in 1995. Conducted workshops on book preservation and disaster planning at B&ECPL, Buffalo State College and Fredonia State College and produced a preservation methods video entitled, “You Always Hurt the Ones You Love”. Temple Beth Zion, Buffalo, NY Librarian 1996 - 1999 Madeline Davis Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Archives of Western New York, founder and Director, 2001 – present.
Davis (born 1940), is a long time gay activist. She was a founding member of the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier, 1970, the first gay rights organization in Western NY. She was also a founding member of Lesbians Uniting, 1971. Davis marched and spoke at the first gay rights rally at the State Capitol in Albany, NY in 1971 and participated in the first NY state legislative lobbying effort. In 1972 she became the first open lesbian elected delegate to a major political convention - Democratic National Convention, Miami, McGovern, and she addressed the convention on behalf of inclusion of a gay rights plank in the Democratic Platform.
Subsequent to the Convention Davis became a Democratic Committeeperson, maintained a visible lesbian presence and worked within the party for gay acceptance. As part of the Political Action Committee of Mattachine she confronted the Buffalo Vice Squad on the issue of entrapment and gay bar raids, the Buffalo Evening News on publication of names of gay persons arrested for misdemeanors, and local politicians including the District Attorney for Niagara Falls on denigrating news articles and hate speech. In 2007 she co-founded a committee with Danny Winter that meets with Tonawanda Police on the issues of arrests for solicitation in local public parks.
With the Political Action Committee of Mattachine in the 1970s she organized "Legislative Night" in which local politicians running for office came to answer questions and ask for endorsements. With Dr. James D. Haynes, Chair of the Health Committee of Mattachine she was a regular lecturer in human sexuality to 40 preceptors and several hundred medical students at the University at Buffalo and organized workshops and study groups. 1982-84 Davis was a board member of the Western NY Association of Professionals Working in Human Sexuality, researching sex and gender issues for medical publication. Working with David Wright, Chair of the Religious Committee of Mattachine she participated in workshops, roundtables and individual discussions with local clergy to gain acceptance of gay congregants in their religious institutions. In 1973 Davis organized a Pride workshop for friends and families of gays and lesbians out of which the local chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) was founded. She continues to chair yearly Pride workshops on GLBT history and culture. In 1988 she addressed the American Library Assn 95th Conference on AIDS in the Workplace. With Wendy Smiley she has regularly addressed university classes on gay issues, most recently for the Political Science classes of Professor Sara Slavin (Buff. State) and classes on sex and gender taught by Bernadette Hoppe. U.B.) In 2002 Davis and Danny Winter co-founded Rainbow Elders of the Niagara Frontier, a peer support and social group for GLBT Seniors. She is currently co-chair of the organization. Davis continues to be involved in politics and is Vice President for Community Liaison for Stonewall Democrats.
In 1972 Davis taught, with Margaret Small, the first course on Lesbianism in the United States - Lesbianism 101 - State University of NY at Buffalo, Fall Semester, 1972. She taught the renamed course, Woman + Woman in 1978 as a lesbian history course. The final project interview tapes for this course were used as a basis for the Co-founding with Dr. Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy of The Buffalo Women's Oral History Project, 1978, seeking to document the lives of older lesbians. In 1981 They won an Astraia Foundation grant to pursue their work. After more than a decade of research Davis co-authored and published with Kennedy, "Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: the history of a lesbian community", Routledge, 1993, winner of the Lambda Literary Award for women's non-fiction, the Ruth Benedict Award for urban anthropology and the Jesse Bernard Award from the American Sociological Assn. She has also published numerous journal and magazine articles on sexuality and women's history as well as short stories and poetry. Davis has lectured on Women's history and sex and gender issues at a number of Universities including: Vassar, Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Sarah Lawrence, Barnard, Columbia U., Emery U., San Francisco State, Washington U., Niagara Community College, and Canisius College, The University of Toronto and The University of the Netherlands in Amsterdam, Holland.
Davis's musical career began in the 1950s when she sang as a soloist with the University Chorale, U.B. and later with the City of Good Neighbors Chorale and the Temple Beth Zion Choir. From the mid 50s she performed as a folk singer in coffee houses in Buffalo, NYC, Seattle, San Francisco and Toronto. She began singing original music with the jazz-rock band, "The New Chicago Lunch" where she was lead singer and subsequently formed "The Madeline Davis Group". She began writing gay/lesbian oriented music in the mid-60s.and in 1971, wrote and recorded the first gay anthem in the U.S., "Stonewall Nation" produced by the Mattachine Society of the Niagara Frontier. In 1983 Davis produced a tape of original lesbian music titled, “Daughter of All Women”. For over four decades she organized and performed benefit concerts for the gay community in Buffalo, NY. She is the composer of 45 songs, most with gay and lesbian themes.
In 1994 she co-founded Black Triangle Women's Percussion Ensemble and continues to perform on djembe, conga and other Afro-Caribbean instruments with the percussion group, Drawing Down the Moon.
Davis has been involved in theater since 1957 when she played Lampito in a production of Lysistrata at U.B... Other Highlights are: In 1965 she played a supporting role in the Jerry Marquette production of "Let's Not and Say We Did". In 1971 she wrote, directed and produced “Liberella”, a feminist comedy. She was a founding member of HAG Theatre, the first all lesbian theater company in the U.S. and performed in many of their productions. In 1988 she became a member of Buffalo United Artists, a gay oriented professional theater company, with a performance in “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove”. In 1993 she won an Artie Award nomination for her portrayal of Typhoid Mary in the one-woman drama, “Cookin’ With Typhoid Mary” by Carolyn Gage, directed by Margaret Smith
Davis is a Reiki Master with a specialty in animal healing and with her partner, Wendy Smiley, has done breed rescue for Keeshonds since 1995. She is a founding member of Spiderwoman Coven, an all women's Wiccan spiritual circle and has performed Wiccan ritual for local spiritual events. In 1995 Davis was married to Smiley at Temple Beth Zion in the first same-sex marriage performed in the Buffalo Jewish Community.
As the result of undergoing gastric bypass surgery Davis founded the first GBS peer support group for the medical practice of Gastrointestinal Surgeon, Dr. Joseph Caruana. Over a period of 6 1/2 years she facilitated the group and expanded its mission to include the founding of 13 GBS support groups throughout Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Niagara Counties. She continues to do individual counseling with Gastric Bypass patients.
In 2001 Davis founded the Buffalo Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Archives which is collecting and preserving the history of Buffalo, NY's gay communities and she continues to be its Director. In 2007 in her honor, the name of the Archives was changed to: The Madeline Davis Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Archives of Western N.Y. Davis continues to work as a writer, archivist historian and political activist.
She is also an avid quilter and gardener.
REFERENCES
“ Reflections on Coming out”, Ethos, 1982
Bonnie Bullough, Madeline Davis & Beverly Whipple “The Grafenberg
Spot and Female Ejaculation”, International Journal of Nursing, 1983.
“Multiple Images: the persona of the lesbian in the literature of the 1940s”,Lesbian
Feminist Research Group, Coralyn Fontaine, ed. 1988
Davis & Kennedy, “Oral History and the Study of Sexuality in the Lesbian Community,
Buffalo, NY, 1940-1960” in Hidden From History, Duberman, Vicinus, Chauncey, 1989.
(Previously published in Feminist Studies journal, 1986)
“The Femme Tapes” , “Old Femme” in The Persisten Desire: a femme- butch reader”
Joan Nestle, ed., 1992
Kennedy & Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian
Community, New York: Routledge. (1993)ISBN 0-415902-93-2
Kennedy & Davis, “They Was No-One to Mess With: the construction of the butch role
in the lesbian community of the 1940s and 1950s” in The Persistent Desire, Joan
Nestle, ed. , 1992
“The Piercing” in The Second Coming, a leatherdyke reader” Pat Califia & Robin
Sweeney, eds., 1992
“Forever Femme” in Fem(me): feminists, lesbians and bad girls, Laura Harris and
Elizabeth Crocker, 1997
“Seniors in the GLBT Community: problems and solutions” in conference Breaking
Down Barriers, Niagara Falls, NY, 2004
“Where have all the gay kids gone? Gay seniors in Buffalo, NY SAGE Newsletter,
Feb. 2007.
AWARDS Community Service Award – Buffalo Lesbian and Gay Community, 1993 David DeMarie Entertainer of the Year Award – 1988 Delegate Appreciation Award - Mattachine Society, 1972 Community Service Award – Empire State Pride Agenda, 1974 Certificate of Appreciation – Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, 1989
Proclamation of Madeline D. Davis day in NY State – by State Sen. Byron
Brown, April 25, 2004
Founders Award – PFLAG, 1989
For "Boots of Leather" with co-author Elizabeth L. Kennedy
Lambda Literary Award – Women’s Studies – 1994
Jesse Bernard Award, American Sociological Assn. – 1994 Ruth Benedict Award, Urban Anthropology - 1994
