Barbara Gittings Residence (by Julian Schmidt)

 

In 1951, lesbian rights activist, Barbara Gittings, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From her apartment in The Locust Commons Apartment Building located on 241 South 21st Street (7), Gittings helped create major changes for the lesbian and gay community. From the Homophile movement to the Daughters of Bilitis. Gittings dedicated her life to liberation. 

The Locust Commons Apartment Building where Gittings once resided is located at the intersection of Locust Street and 21st Street. The building is still in use today, although Gittings moved out in 1972. The brick building is four stories high along with basement space. Since 2012, the intersection between 13th Street and Locust Street has been renamed as Barbara Gittings Way as a tribute to her accomplishments. On the sign, along with her name, the colors of the rainbow flag are displayed (2).

Her home was in Philadelphia, but she traveled to many locations to connect with other lesbian and gay activists. In the pre-Stonewall era, more people were in the closet than not, and activist groups in the then Homophile Movement were small in number. The Homophile Movement emerged in response to gays and lesbians being fired from their jobs in the federal government. Early activists felt the term homosexuality alienated people’s sexuality, making being gay an action rather than an identity; hence, they prefered “homophile” (6).

One of the first organizations Gittings participated in was with the Mattachine Society of Washington, founded by Frank Kameny, who is today known as the father of the Gay Rights Movement. With Gittings’ help, Kameny organized pickets in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia on July 4th of 1965, which continued until 1969. This day was known as the Annual Reminder to remind America how many people are denied the right to liberty. The first protest included only a handful of people, and by 1969 their numbers drastically improved (3). The signs they held said “Homosexuals should be judged as individuals,” or “Homosexuals picket for American freedoms and rights.” There were also signs that declared homosexuals as an unrecognized minority and proclaimed homosexuality does not impact one’s ability to work. 

The America Psychiatric Association (APA) declared homosexuality as a mental illness in its second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Together, Kameny and Gittings worked to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders. In 1970, the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance protested outside the American Psychiatric Association. In 1971, they stormed into the APA meetings and Kameny took over the microphone to defend homosexuality. Finally, in 1972, Gittings and Kameny organized a panel with an anonymous psychiatrist who hid under a mask and used a voice modulator to protect his identity. He went by the name of Dr. H Anonymous, but his real name was John E. Fryer. Dr. H Anonymous’s claim was that homosexuality was as normal as heterosexuality, and the problem was instead homophobia. In 1973, homosexuality was removed from the list of mental illnesses (3). This is one of Gittings’ greatest achievements and a primary reason Locust street was renamed in her honor.

Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) was founded in 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin in San Francisco, California. DOB was influenced by the Mattachine Society, but the founders wanted a specific group to offer support for lesbians. Gittings joined DOB in 1958, two years after her first meeting. She described her first DOB meeting in San Francisco as follows, “I found myself in a living room in a normal social setting with twelve other lesbians and it was a marvelous experience. And I just sat there sort of reveling in the company.” Gittings was excited to formally meet with other lesbians in a place other than a bar (5). In 1961, Gittings founded a DOB chapter in New York City. In that same year, Gittings also met her life partner, Kay Tobin Lauhsen at a DOB picnic in New Jersey (1). Tobin and Gittings had similar criticisms of the organization, and described DOB as a “scolding teacher.” DOB wanted all lesbians to be respectable and mainstream so that the world would accept them—an approach Tobin and Gittings took issue with. As Gittings said: “At every national convention of DOB, Kay and I would come up with very radical proposals that were always voted down,” (5).

        In 1963, Gittings became the editor of The Ladder, the magazine produced by DOB. The Ladder

reached isolated women who could not attend lesbian social functions. During Martin’s and Lyon’s time as editors, the magazine was not political. They published a variety of writings, including psychologists’ views on homosexuality. Gittings, as editor, made drastic changes to the content of the magazine. More radical and lesbian feminist content was published. Gittings also changed the magazine’s covers to feature photographs of actual lesbians taken by Tobin, and added the Subtitle “a lesbian review” (8).

The November 1965 cover, for example, features a photo of a woman with a pixie cut painting what appears to be a self-portrait. The issue also contained an interview with Jean, the woman on the front cover, in which Gittings and Tobin asked questions like: “Did you have any crushes on teachers at school?” and “What did you think about the injustice of having the country you wanted to serve treat you so shabbily and spend so much effort and money and time to put you out of its service?” (4).

Gittings was an extremely influential LGBTQ activist . She was not alone in making change; she could not have done it without fellow activists such as Kameny, Martin, Lyon, and Tobin. Learning Gittings’ history helps put into context how the past has impacted the present. It illustrates why homophobia exists, as people listened to what they were told by psychiatrists, priests, and society at large. If you find yourself driving through Philadelphia, go and check out Barbara Gittings Way.

Work Cited

1. Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen gay history papers and photographs, n.d. http://archives.nypl.org/mss/6397.

2. “Barbara Gittings Residence Historic Marker.” Barbara Gittings Residence Historic Marker | Equality Forum, n.d. https://equalityforum.com/barbara-gittings-residence-historic-marker.

3. “Barbara Gittings.” Barbara Gittings | LGBT 50th Anniversary July 4, 2015, February 19, 2007. https://lgbt50.org/barbara-gittings.

4. Gittings, Barbara, and Kay Tobin. “Interview with Jean.” The Ladder10, November 1965. 

5. Marcus, Eric. “Episode 09 - Gittings & Lahusen.” Making Gay History. Making Gay History, June 6, 2018. https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/episode-01-09/.

6. Pettis, Ruth M. “Homophile Movement, U.S. ,” 2015. http://web.b.ebscohost.com.dbsearch.fredonia.edu:2048/ehost/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=ac7ec955-68b1-48b2-bfa4-112008a845d7%40pdc-v-sessmgr05&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=110523198&db=qth.

7. Stein, Marc. “Barbara Gittings, February 2, 1993 · Philadelphia LGBT History Project · OutHistory: It's About Time.” outhistory.org, 2009. http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/philadelphia-lgbt-interviews/interviews/barbara-gittings.

8. Theophano, Teresa. “Daughters of Bilitis.” http://www.glbtq.com, 2004. http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/daughters_bilitis_S.pdf.