Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Barbara Gittings


From the archives:

Date: Thu Mar 8, 2007 8:47 pm
Subject: Barbara Gittings


Hi everyone,

As you might have heard, the legendary, iconic, gay activist Barabara Gittings died late last month on February 18th at the age of 75, after a lengthy fight with breast cancer.

Widely regarded as the mother of the modern Gay Rights Movement, Barbara Gittings was one of the early pioneers of Gay Rights in the 1950s, helped found the NYC chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, and edited an early lesbian publication called "The Ladder," from 1963 to 1966. In 1965, 3 years before the milestone event of the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969, Gittings helped organize one of the first gay rights protests in modern memory in demonstrations at the White House in Washington DC and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Along with another Gay Rights pioneer Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings was instrumental in the campaign that led to the American Psychiatric Association's 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Ms. Gittings was instrumental in securing the appearance and testimony of that famous, pro-gay masked psychiatrist.

When I heard about her passing I had to jot down my reaction so I've
included it here below at the end of this post.

*****************

The wonderful podcast, Gay USA, hosted by veteran LGBTQ rights
activists Andy Humm and Ann Northrop, dedicated an episode to Barbara Gittings and you can listen to it here:
http://web.mac.com/depeche7/iWeb/Site/Podcast/D874F98A-9418-4D75-805A-0E3D037D54\
62.html


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The following is a partial listing of coverage of her passing by media sources:
http://gaycitynews.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=17884544&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=5\
68864&rfi=8

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ci=108&ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=1829\
3

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900921.\
html

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/phila\
delphia_county/philadelphia/16736722.htm

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-passings20.2feb20,1,29\
04550.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aR_HOK8TU.E0&refer=muse
http://www.generationq.net/articles/Gay-Pioneer-dies-at-75-00001.html
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--obit-gittings0218feb18,\
0,5155742.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork


*****************

The following are some articles on Ms. Gittings:
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/gittings_b.html
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/042299/feat.20q.shtml
http://www.glbthistorymonth.com/glbthistorymonth/bio.cfm?LeaderID=14
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Gittings

*****************

Barbara Gittings has been featured in many documentaries on gay
history. Here is a partial listing:
Before Stonewall http://imdb.com/title/tt0088782/
After Stonewall http://imdb.com/title/tt0244955/
Out of the Past http://www.pbs.org/outofthepast/

*****************

A partial listing of statements released by our community leaders
mourning the passing of Barabara Gittings:
http://www.thetaskforce.org/Update/2007/07_07_0221/index.htm
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2039.html
http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Room&CONTENTID=35521&TEMPLATE=/Con\
tentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm

http://www.glaad.org/media/release_detail.php?id=3977&

*****************

I don't know what this is, but I was immediately devastated. I was very angry and then I felt sad, then nauseated I did not know her and have never met her. What I do know is that she is definitely one of our founding mothers for everyone who is LGBTQ in America. Her work laid the groundwork for our movement and we would not have the freedoms today if it weren't for her efforts.

I guess i am upset because it is as if my parent has died. I know this is so contrived and silly to say and to feel but somehow i feel connected to her and am touched by her story. Somehow I always felt that as an activist i might some day be able to meet her and to tell her how much her work has meant to me. That in our times today where so many of our LGBTQ youth do not know anything about their history that someone like me feels so grateful for her and her work. I am incredibly sad that I will never get a chance to tell her this.

Another part of me feels with her passing, we as a community becomes that much more removed from those times of the initial fire that fueled our movement. i guess what i am afraid of is that oftentimes when we protest and fight for justice, we do it not so we ourselves can enjoy the fruits of our labor because we often cant, but in order so that those that come after us can enjoy a level of freedom that we ourselves cannot and did not. But then because the previous generation was so successful, the next often experiences a situation that's so vastly liberating that they mistakenly believe that the freedoms that they have had always been there.

That is why I hope that Stonewall Youth can become a place where the importance of our history and struggle is being passed onto the next generation.

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