Barbara Gittings
1932-2007
Barbara Gittings is regarded as the mother of the LGBT civil rights movement.
In the 1950s gay activism was in its infancy. “There were scarcely 200 of us in the whole United States,” Gittings said of her fellow crusaders. “It was like a club—we all knew each other.”
Although Gittings lived in Philadelphia, in 1958 she started the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). Founded in San Francisco, the DOB was the first lesbian civil rights organization in the United States. From 1963 to 1966, Gittings was the editor of the DOB’s publication, “The Ladder,” the first national lesbian magazine.
With fellow organizers, Gittings helped enlist activists for the seminal demonstrations that called for gay and lesbian equality. Held in front of Independence Hall each Fourth of July from 1965 to 1969, these protests, known as Annual Reminders, paved the way for the Stonewall riot in 1969. At the 1965 Annual Reminder, 40 brave openly gay picketers carried signs demanding equality. By 1969 their numbers had more than tripled. After 1969, Gittings and others suspended the Annual Reminders to marshal support for a 1970 march commemorating the first anniversary of Stonewall.
Gittings and Frank Kameny waged a multi-year campaign for the declassification of homosexuality as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. Staging protests, panel discussions and participating in multiple meetings, the APA announced its removal of the classification in 1973. Kameny described it as the day “we were cured en masse by the psychiatrists.”
Gittings also successfully crusaded to promote gay literature and eliminate discrimination in the nation’s libraries. She volunteered with the Gay Task Force of the American Library Association, the first gay caucus in a professional organization. Although she was not a librarian, she soon became the group’s coordinator—a position she held for 16 years.
In 2016 the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission authorized a Barbara Gittings Historic Marker, located outside the residence she shared in the 1960s with her life partner, Kay Lahusen.
Gittings was an avid music lover, most interested in Baroque and Renaissance music. She sang in choral groups for most of her life, spending over 50 years in the Philadelphia Chamber Chorus. She was also a hiking and canoeing enthusiast.