Barbara Gittings

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Barbara Gittings (born July 31, 1932 in Vienna , Austria , † February 18, 2007 in Kennett Square , Pennsylvania , USA ) was an American LGBT activist and journalist .

Life

childhood and education

Gittings was born as the daughter of Elizabeth Brooks and John Sterett Gittings in Vienna, where their father worked as an American diplomat . Gittings attended a Catholic school in Montreal and wanted to become a Catholic nun at the time . Her family returned to the United States when World War II broke out. After finishing school, Gittings attended Northwestern University and studied theater studies (drama). She met a student with whom she was on friendly terms. This friendship sparked rumors at the university that they were both lesbian . Gittings decided to end the friendly contact and read books on the subject of homosexuality and sexual orientation in the following years . Gittings left university without a degree and returned to Philadelphia . She was reading books like Nightwood , The Well of Loneliness , The Unlitt Lamp and Extraordinary Women at the time .

Daughters of Bilitis

In 1956 Gittings went to California for a short time, where she met Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin , the founders of Daughters of Bilitis in California. They asked Gittings if they could found an offshoot of Daughters of Bilitis in New York City, which they implemented in New York City in 1958. Gittings was a major member of the New York Association of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization in the United States. Gittings became the first female president in New York City of Daughters of Bilitis for three years .

The Ladder

From 1963 to 1966 she took over the editorial support of The Ladder magazine .

Protests

In 1965 Gittings took part in the vigil for homosexual people in front of the White House , the US State Department and in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia .

American Library Association

In the 1970s, Barbara Gittings increasingly looked for books on the subject of homosexuality in the libraries of the United States. She got involved in a subgroup of the American Library Association and started a kiss happening with the motto Hug a Homosexual at their meeting in Dallas . Together with the author Alma Routsong , the author of the book Patience and Sarah , they kissed in front of the television cameras and thus gained the public attention of the television media. Gittings was on the Phil Donahue Show in 1970 and the David Susskind Show on PBS in 1971 , both times with six other lesbian women, including Lilli Vincenz and Barbara Love . They were the first women on American television to openly appear as lesbians and debated with Susskind, among others, about the stereotypes of homosexual people. A week after her appearance on the David Susskind Show , Gittings met an elderly couple in the supermarket who she asked about their TV appearance and said: "You made me realize that you gay people love each other just the way Arnold and I do".

American Psychiatric Association

She was also actively involved as a member of the American Psychiatric Association when it was achieved in 1972 that homosexuality was no longer considered a disease. Together with Franklin Kameny and John E. Fryer , she organized a panel discussion in the American Psychiatric Association on the subject of Psychiatry: Friend or Foe to Homosexuals: A Dialogue . When Gitting's partner Lahusen noticed that not a single homosexual psychiatrist would attend the event (Lahusen: "This isn't right - here you have two psychiatrists pitted against two gay, and what you really need is someone who is both" ), asked Gitting the event host, Kent Robinson , a homosexual psychiatrist to attend. In 1972, Gittings and Lahusen went in search of a homosexual psychiatrist who dared to take part in the discussion. They wrote letters and made phone calls until they met the gay psychiatrist John E. Fryer, who agreed to work under the pseudonym Dr. H. Anonymous to participate in the discussion event. A year later in 1973, homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a disease as a result of the discussion .

Personal life in the later years

Gittings in 2006

Gittings met her longtime partner Kay Tobin Lahusen (* 1930) at a picnic in Rhode Island in 1961 , with whom she lived together for 46 years until the end of her life. On 18 February 2007 Gittings died in Kennett Square , Pennsylvania , to breast cancer .

Movies

Gittings appeared in several documentaries including Gay Pioneers , Before Stonewall , After Stonewall , Out of the Past and Pride Divide .

Honors and prizes

For her work and dedication, Gittings received a lifetime membership in the American Library Association , and a LGBT ( Stonewall Book Award ) prize for best LGBT novel was named in honor of The Barbara Gittings Award . Furthermore, the LGBT organization Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) named a prize for LGBT activists ( GLAAD Media Awards ) in her honor .

Matt Foreman , the chairman of GLAAD , said in 2007: “What do we owe Barbara? Everything. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [Kay Tobin and Randy Wicker, The Gay Crusaders (New York: Paperback Library, 1972; Photo Reprint, Arno, 1975)]
  2. ↑ Hogan, Steve and Hudson, L., "Barbara Gittings." Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia, Henry Holt and Company, 1998 ISBN 0805036296
  3. ^ "Homosexuals Stage Protest in Capital," New York Times: May 30, 1965, p. 42, Found Oct. 16, 2007
  4. ^ Vern Leroy Bullough , Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context , Harrington Park Press, 2003
  5. ↑ Herek, Gregory, Facts About Homosexuality and Mental Health , Sexual Orientation: Science, Education and Policy, Found Nov. 4, 2007
  6. ^ Associated Press, February 19, 2007, Barbara Gittings, early gay rights activist, dies at 75
  7. ↑ Gay Pioneers
  8. ^ Before Stonewall
  9. ^ Before Stonewall
  10. ↑ After Stonewall
  11. ↑ After Stonewall
  12. ↑ Our of the Past
  13. ↑ Pride Divide
  14. ↑ Jennings, Kevin, Fighting for Freedom in Philadelphia: Barbara Gittings, 1932-2007 , The Huffington Post, April 29, 2007, found Nov. 4, 2007

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gittings, Barbara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and LGBT activist
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 2007
Place of death Kennett Square , Pennsylvania