Homosexuality/LGBT Collection

The Homosexuality/LGBT Collection consists of articles, books, leaflets, newsletters, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, periodicals and position papers that document the evolution of legal, medical, political, individual and public attitudes and approaches to lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and organizations from 1932 to the present. There are only a few items dating from the period before Stonewall (1969), including a review of the 1932 German film "Maedchen in Uniform" from Literary Digest; psychiatrist Frank Caprio's 1954 book, Female Homosexuality: A Psychodynamic Study; and the Scottish Home Department's 1957 Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. Without exception these publications reflect the predominant assumptions about the pathological nature of homosexual identity and behavior that characterize the period before the emergence of the gay liberation movement.

The vast majority of the items in the collection date from 1970 to 1978. These document the discursive and political struggles that surrounded the efforts of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals to oppose the medicalization and criminalization of homosexuality and to oppose homophobic discrimination at every level of U.S. society. Some of this material reflects conservatives' efforts to oppose gay liberation struggles and some demonstrates the widespread confusion and ambivalence about lesbians and gay men shared by mainstream journalists, politicians, and medical and legal professionals during the 1970s. Most of the material, however, documents lesbian, gay and bisexual efforts to raise public consciousness about same-sex sexuality and demonstrates the gradual inroads made by the gay and lesbian liberation movement during the decade of the 1970s, especially in college and university settings. Newspapers such as The Militant and The Village Voice are particularly well-represented among the newspaper clippings in the collection. Also of interest are numerous newsletters, periodicals and leaflets that document lesbian organizing in the Pioneer Valley and surrounding areas.

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General

Organizations

Periodicals [SEE ALSO SSC Periodical Collection]

Books

Oversize Materials