#LesbianVisibiltyWeek Barbara Gittings was a key, major figure in the nascent LGB or homophile movement of the 1950s. Barbara founded the NYC Daughter of Bilitis chapter in 1958 and edited the first lesbian group publication, The Ladder. DOB function as a lesbian social... 1/8

... /discussion group. Barbara, collaborating with Frank Kameny, moved the gay liberation needle by moving groups like DOB & Mattachine towards militancy and direct action. They led picketers at the White House and at Independence Hall in Philadelphia in the 60s. Barbara... 2/8

... traveled the country helping gays & lesbians in rural areas create their own local groups. I spoke to an elderly lesbian activist in Burlington this February who recalls Barbara coming to help Vermont activists organize the first LGB group in Vermont in the early 1970s. 3/8

Barbara went on in the 70s to organize within the American Library Association. LGB books in a library are something that we take for granted today but that wasn't always so. Barbara's work in the ALA changed libraries for LGB people in the US. She made lesbians and gays... 4/8

... "visible" at the ALA. The ALA created an annual award for the best gay and lesbian novels called the Barbara Gittings Award and made her a lifetime ALA member. Other LGBT groups have named awards for Barbara. Perhaps Barbara Gittings most significant contribution... 5/8

... to LGB rights, recognition & achievement was her pivotal role in 1973 getting the American Psychiatric Association to change its designation of homosexuality as a mental illness in the DSM.

In their later years, Barbara and her partner of 46 years, Kay Tobin Lahusen,... 6/8

... donated thousands of LGB novels to various collections around the country. Their considerable papers that are essential to understanding 20th century gay activism are housed at the NY Public Library. Philadelphia named a street in their gayborhood Barbara Gittings Way. 7/8

We hear a lot today about people who are alleged to have launched the modern gay rights movement. If you want to know one who was most responsible for spearheading the emerging same-sex rights movement and achieving our rights, look no further than Barbara Gittings. 8/8