NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                              DATE: 9/25/07 CONTACT : LESLIE SCHALER, COMMUNICATION ASST., (413) 545-0162   UMASS AMHERST LIBRARY ANNOUNCES GIFT Barbara Gittings-Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay Book Collection Amherst, MA - The UMass Amherst Libraries’ Department of Special Collections and University Archives announces the recent gift of an extraordinary collection of over 1,000 books collected by gay rights pioneers Barbara Gittings and her life partner, Kay Tobin Lahusen.  Both broad and deep, the collection documents the history and culture of homosexuality in America and includes historically important materials ranging from a long run of the early lesbian periodical, The Ladder, to works on the psychology of homosexuality, novels by gay authors, and examples of the pulp fiction of the 1950s and 1960s.  A reception will be held to celebrate the arrival of the collection in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Floor 25, Du Bois Library, on Thursday, October 11, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.  Refreshments will be served; the event is free and open to the public.                                       “With its many out-of-print books and long forgotten pioneering works, the Barbara Gittings- Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay Book Collection will be a goldmine for researchers, and will add to the wealth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender resources available in Western Massachusetts,” said Brett-Genny Janiczek Beemyn, Director of the Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst.  Local author Lesléa Newman commented “What a priceless gift this is! Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen have done the community an immense service by collecting the printed evidence of GLBT history and donating it to UMass Amherst.” In 1958, Gittings established the first East Coast chapter of the first lesbian organization in the U.S., the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), founded in 1955 in San Francisco. From 1963 to 1966 she edited The Ladder, DOB's pioneer national magazine. She marched in the first gay rights picket lines in the mid-1960s at the White House and the Pentagon, and at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. She was a charter member of the boards of directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (founded in 1973) and the Gay Rights National Lobby (founded in 1976), which was the forerunner of the Human Rights Campaign. Gittings was active in the campaign that led to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) dropping its categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973.  She produced three exhibits at APA conventions: “Gay, Proud and Healthy,” “Homophobia: Time for A Cure,” and “Gay Love: Good Medicine.”  She appeared in the documentary film “Before Stonewall” (1987) and its sequel “After Stonewall” (1999) as well as the 1998 documentary “Out of the Past” and the PBS documentary “Gay Pioneers” (2001). Gittings began collecting books on gay topics after coming out during her freshman year at Northwestern University and being unable to find material that helped her understand her gay identity.  As part of her lifelong effort to make gay and lesbian materials more available for library use, she produced bibliographies and programs as part of the Task Force on Gay Liberation (later the Gay Task Force and the GLBT Round Table) within the American Library Association.  Gittings served as coordinator of the group from 1971 until 1986.  In 2003 she was awarded ALA’s highest honor, an honorary membership.  Kay Lahusen is considered by some to be the first photojournalist of the gay movement. She has documented lesbian and gay political and cultural events since the 1960s and took many of the photos in the collection of Barbara Gittings as an activist.  She was a co-editor with Gittings of the magazine The Ladder, one of the twelve founding members of the Gay Activists Alliance in 1969, and is the author of The Gay Crusaders (New York: Paperback Library, 1972).  Her photographs of homophile protests have been widely published and exhibited. According to Jay Schafer, Director of Libraries, “We are indeed honored Kay Tobin Lahusen has gifted to the UMass Amherst Libraries this collection she and Barbara Gittings built and loved.  It is a treasure and adds depth and richness to the world-class documentation of social justice found in our Special Collections & University Archives Department.” For further information, contact Anne L. Moore at 545-6888, amoore@library.umass.edu or Robert S. Cox at 545-6842, rscox@library.umass.edu. .