Barbara Gittings, pioneer LGBT activist

n.July 31, 1932
d. February 18, 2007

A prominent American activist for gay equality. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government. Her early experiences with trying to learn more about lesbianism fueled her lifetime work with libraries.

Her friend and fellow gay rights activist Jack Nichols once heralded Barbara as “the Grand Mother of Lesbian and Gay Liberation.” That’s not much of exaggeration when one considers what she had accomplished for the LGBT community. Her quest for equality and dignity began when she flunked out of her freshman year at Northwestern University because she spent too much time in the library trying to understand what it meant to be a lesbian. Ever since then, her mission was to tear down what she called “the shroud of invisibility” that facilitated the ongoing criminal persecution of homosexuality as well as its being regarded as a mental illness. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Billitis in 1958, and she gained a national platform within the gay and lesbian community as the editor of the pioneering lesbian journal The Ladder in the mid-1960s."

Box Turtle Bulletin

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Ed Watson: Gay marriage proponent

Gay marriage proponent who urged halt to Prop. 8 enforcement dies - Los Angeles Times: "Derence Kernek and Ed Watson became prominent faces in the California gay community's campaign for the right to marry when they urged a federal appeals court earlier this year to halt the enforcement of Proposition 8 so they could wed before Watson succumbed to advancing illness.

On the eve of a Thursday hearing on challenges to a 2010 ruling that the voter initiative banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, Watson died at age 78 of complications from Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and hypertension."

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Allen Ginsberg , Poet

b. June 3, 1926

d. April 5, 1997

"The only thing that can save the world is the reclaiming of the awareness of the world. That's what poetry does."

Allen Ginsberg was a revolutionary poet and committed activist. He was a leader of the Beat movement, which celebrated nonconformity and paved the way for many previously ignored poets. Ginsberg’s works captured his antiestablishment spirit and fostered social change.

He was born Irwin Allen Ginsberg and raised in Patterson, New Jersey. His father, Louis, was a successful poet who walked around the house reciting poetry. His mother suffered from paranoia and was in and out of mental hospitals. Three years after her death, Ginsberg wrote "Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg" (1961), which is considered one of his finest works.

Ginsberg attended Columbia University, where he received a B.A. in 1948. The next year, he met Carl Solomon, whom he credited with "deepening his understanding of poetry and its power as a weapon of political dissent." His most celebrated poem, "Howl!" (1956), was dedicated to Solomon. Ginsberg was tried and acquitted of obscenity charges partially related to the poem’s homoerotic content. A judge found that the poem had "redeeming social importance," making "Howl!" a reference case for free-speech advocates.

Ginsberg is credited with coining the term "flower power," which encouraged protesters to engage in nonviolent rebellion. Once kicked out of Cuba for saying Che Guevara was "cute," Ginsberg was dubbed a social bandit. His frank writing about homosexuality made an important contribution to gay rights.

In 1954, Ginsberg met the man who would become his life partner, Peter Orlovsky. Like Ginsberg, Orlovsky was an American poet and experienced the mental illness of a family member. Their 43-year relationship ended with Ginsberg’s death in 1997.

Ginsberg’s honors include a National Book Award, a Robert Frost Medal for distinguished poetic achievement and an American Book Award for contributions to literary excellence. In 1987, he was named a distinguished professor at Brooklyn College, where he taught English and creative writing. In 1993, the French minister of culture awarded Ginsberg the Order of Arts and Letters.