Barbara Gittings | |
|---|---|
 Gittings in 1971 | |
| Born | July 31, 1932 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | February 18, 2007 (aged 74) |
| Resting place | Congressional Cemetery[1] |
| Education | Northwestern University |
| Organization(s) | Daughters of Bilitis, American Library Association |
| Movement | Gay rights movement |
| Partner(s) | Kay Lahusen (1961-Gittings' death, 2007) |
| Awards | GLAAD Barbara Gittings Award; Lifetime Honorary Membership, American Library Association |
Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) was a prominent American activist for LGBT equality. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis[2] (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder[2][3] from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government. Her early experiences with trying to learn more about lesbianism fueled her lifetime work with libraries. In the 1970s, Gittings was most involved in the American Library Association, especially its gay caucus, the first such in a professional organization, in order to promote positive literature about homosexuality in libraries. She was a part of the movement to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness in 1972.[2][4] Her self-described life mission was to tear away the "shroud of invisibility" related to homosexuality, which had theretofore been associated with crime and mental illness.[5]
She was awarded American Library Association Honorary Membership, and the ALA named an annual award for the best gay or lesbian novel the Barbara Gittings Award. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) also named an activist award for her. At her memorial service, Matt Foreman, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said, "What do we owe Barbara? Everything."[6]
- ^ Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery. Congressional Cemetery Walking Tour: LGBT Community Archived October 10, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
dieswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Kesslen, Ben (June 3, 2019). "#Pride50: Barbara Gittings - Mother of the Gay Rights Movement". NBC News. Archived from the original on February 17, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
todaywas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Warner David."20 questions". Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. CityPaper.net. April 22–29, 1999; accessed November 4, 2007.
- ^ Jennings, Kevin.Jennings, Kevin (March 28, 2008). "Fighting for Freedom in Philadelphia: Barbara Gittings, 1932-2007". Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, April 29, 2007; retrieved November 4, 2007.