Special Collection #0003:
The Barbara Gittings /
Kay Tobin Lahusen Collection

Audio Recordings: In Processing
1955-1970 [bulk 1965-1967]
18 hours processed and available

Photos: In Processing
1965-1996? [bulk 1965-1973]
3 linear inches of prints and two
CD-ROMs processed and available

 

The Audio Recordings

Most of the currently available recordings are copies of reel-to-reel tapes that Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen (aka "Kay Tobin") made during and just after their tenure as co-editors of the magazine The Ladder: A Lesbian Review.  The recordings document attitudes, ideas and strategies prevalent in the U.S. homophile movement during the 1960s.  The movement's public face is preserved in recordings of conferences and meetings, as well as activists' talk show appearances and lectures.  The movement's private face is reflected in interviews for The Ladder and in brainstorming sessions among activists.  Controversies discussed include whether the movement should engage in picketing and other civil rights activities, and whether it should challenge the medical profession's claim that homosexuality is an illness.  Mainstream attitudes toward homosexuality are preserved in speeches by theologians, lawyers and mental health professionals.

Homophile leaders who figure prominently in the recordings are "Warren Adkins" (pseudonym of Jack Nichols), "Ernestine Eckstein," Barbara Gittings, Franklin Kameny, Dick Leitsch, Clark Polak, and "Kay Tobin" (Kay Lahusen).  Organizations represented include the Council on Religion and the Homosexual (San Francisco), the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), the Homosexual Law Reform Society (Philadelphia), the Janus Society (Philadelphia), the Mattachine Society (chapters from Chicago, Florida, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.), the National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations, and the Tavern Owners Guild of San Francisco.

The Photos

With camera in hand, Kay Lahusen has documented lesbian and gay political and cultural events since the 1960s.  The earliest images in this collection are of the 1965 East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) conference, and picketing at Independence Hall for gay equality in the mid and late 1960s.  There are numerous images of Pride parades, choir concerts (Spruce Street Singers and the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus), and other community events from the 1970s to 1990s, including rallies sponsored by the Philadelphia Lesbian & Gay Task Force, Philadelphia's first AIDS vigil, the first From All Walks of Life walkathon to raise money for AIDS charities, the 1987 March on Washington, and the 1994 Stonewall 25 Celebration in New York City.

The Donors

Barbara Gittings (b. 1932) and Kay Lahusen (b. 1930) are longtime activists and Delaware Valley residents.  They have been a couple since 1961 when they met at a DOB picnic.  Gittings co-founded the New York chapter of DOB in 1958, has played key roles in numerous gay organizations, and is a much in-demand public speaker.  Lahusen was one of the twelve founding members of the Gay Activists Alliance in 1969, and is the author of The Gay Crusaders (New York: Paperback Library, 1972).  Her photographs of homophile protests have been widely published and exhibited.

Gittings and Lahusen lent the Library/Archives their original materials for copying.  Restrictions apply to some recordings of private interviews.  Access to the rest of the collection is unrestricted.

PHOTO:  Barbara Gittings (left) and Kay Lahusen, circa 1990.  Courtesy of Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen.

PHOTO:  Attendees at the 1965 conference of East Coast Homophile Organizations.  (Scanned from a contact sheet.)  © Kay Tobin Lahusen, used by permission.

PHOTO:  Banner from Hepburns, a women's bar formerly located on 12th Street, during a Philadelphia pride parade, circa 1992.  © Kay Tobin Lahusen, used by permission.