Barbara Gittings

2006 John Fryer Award Recipient

Lecture Title: Gay, Proud, and Healthy: From Heresy to Humdrum

Barbara Gittings was a pioneering gay rights activist beginning in 1958, when she founded the New York chapter of the lesbian organization Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). She edited The Ladder, the group’s national magazine, from 1963 to 1966, introducing photo covers of lesbians and helping combat the invisibility of the time. In 1965, she took part in the first gay rights pickets at the White House and Independence Hall, calling for an end to discrimination. Though not a librarian, she led the Gay Task Force of the American Library Association from 1971 to 1986, where she developed reading lists, supported the Gay Book Award, and organized programs, including the first Gay Film Festival in 1978. In 1972, she helped challenge the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness at an APA panel, and she later created exhibits such as “Gay Love: Good Medicine” to promote positive images of gay people. Throughout her life, she worked to advance equality for LGBTQ+ individuals.