Barbara Brooks Gittings (1932 - 2007)

Born 31 Jul 1932 in Vienna, Austria

Ancestors

Died 18 Feb 2007 at age 74 in Kennett Square, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Barbara Gittings is Notable.

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 (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963–66, 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. 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.

She was awarded a lifetime membership in the American Library Association, 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."

Barbara Gittings was born to Elizabeth Brooks and John Sterett Gittings in Vienna, Austria, where her father was serving as a U.S. diplomat. Barbara and her siblings attended Catholic schools in Montreal. She was so immersed in Catholicism at one point in her childhood that she considered becoming a nun.^[1] Her family returned to the United States at the outbreak of World War II and settled in Wilmington, Delaware. Although aware of her attraction to other girls, Gittings said she first heard the word "homosexual" when she was rejected for membership in the National Honor Society in high school. Despite being an excellent student, a teacher who had reservations about her character took her aside and told her that the rejection was based on what the teacher believed were "homosexual inclinations".

Gittings was an avid music lover, most interested in Baroque and Renaissance music. She sang in choral groups for most of her life, spending over 50 years in the Philadelphia Chamber Chorus.[64] She was also a hiking and canoeing enthusiast. She and her lifelong partner, Kay Tobin, (also known as Kay Tobin Lahusen; born 1930) met in 1961 at a picnic in Rhode Island. Gittings described how they began: "We hit it off, we started courting. I flew to Boston [to see her] and got off the plane with a big bunch of flowers in my hand. I couldn't resist. I did not care what the world thought. I dropped the flowers, grabbed her and kissed her. That was not being done in 1961.^[2] Barbara Gittings at UCLA on November 17, 2006.

Gittings and Lahusen were together for 46 years. They donated copies of some materials and photographs covering their activism to the Cornell University Rare and Manuscript Collections.^[3] In 2007, Lahusen donated all of their original papers and photographs to the New York City Public Library (NYPL), whose head, Paul LeClerc, said, "The collection donated by Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen is a remarkable first-hand chronicle detailing the battles of gays and lesbians to overcome the prejudice and restrictions that were prevalent prior to the activism and protest movements that started in the 1960s."^[4]

In 1997, Gittings and Lahusen pushed the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) to grant couple's membership to them, for a reduced price on health insurance. One of her last acts as an activist was to come out in the newsletter published by the assisted living facility they reside in. On February 18, 2007, Gittings died in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania after a long battle with breast cancer. She is survived by her life partner, Kay Tobin Lahusen, and her sister, Eleanor Gittings Taylor. In 1999, Gittings summed up her inspiration for her activism: "As a teenager, I had to struggle alone to learn about myself and what it meant to be gay. Now for 48 years I've had the satisfaction of working with other gay people all across the country to get the bigots off our backs, to oil the closet door hinges, to change prejudiced hearts and minds, and to show that gay love is good for us and for the rest of the world too. It's hard work — but it's vital, and it's gratifying, and it's often fun!"^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Tobin, Kay and Wicker, Randy. (1975) The Gay Crusaders. Arno Press; ISBN 0-405-07374-7. pg 76
2. ↑ "Warner David. "20 questions". April 22–29, 1999; accessed November 4, 2007.
3. ↑ "Death of a Gay Rights Pioneer". The Washington Post. February 24, 2007.
4. ↑ "Archive of Influential Gay Rights Activists Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen acquired by The New York Public Library". (Press Release). New York Public Library; retrieved November 4, 2007.
5. ↑ Barbara Gittings". Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Glbt History Month; October 14, 2006; retrieved November 4, 2007.

• "Barbara Gittings, 74, Prominent Gay Rights Activist Since ’50s, Dies" New York Times. By Margalit Fox, March 15, 2007. [1]
• 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.
• Wikipedia Page