Blog Posts by Subject: Gay and Lesbian Studies

In order to foster a community conversation about HIV and AIDS in dialogue with the Library’s major archives on the history of the AIDS crisis, The New York Public Library is hosting a project to create site-specific installations in four library branches—across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island—that explore the ways that HIV and AIDS are currently affecting these local New York City communities.

Val and Chloe are best friends extraordinaire. After spending much time with Chloe, Val finds that other people pale in comparison.

Guest post Perry Brass.

Recently more attention has been focused on the rights of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) on a global and local level. For example, Vice President Joe Biden delivered the keynote speech at the Human Rights Campaign held in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, March 22, 2014. He presented LGBT rights as an integral part of U.S. foreign policy and he also pointed out that it was time for Congress to pass Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). ENDA would bar employers with 15 or more workers for using a person's sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for making 

Sixteen-year-old Garnet Richardson finds a breath of fresh area in her summer visit to Excelsior, Minnesota in 1926 to live in a hotel with Mrs. Harrington and her daughter Hannah. She is relieved to escape the problems of home, and a little bit scared to enter into the world of the intriguing and beautiful flapper, 17-year-old Isabella. She is excited to start her life as a career woman as a hat shop girl with Miss Maples. Garnet and Isabella share a passion with each other that is definitely not accepted at that time and place.

The politics around disclosure are complicated and they are not getting any easier.

Opportunity to study and collaborate with artist, writer, and activist Avram Finkelstein.

Guest post by Avram Finkelstein.

While we prefer to think of art as a reflection of our culture that mirrors our higher selves—and it frequently is—art can also serve as a dividing line.

Without access to the education needed to pry open the class codes woven into the cannon of Western European art, it can be impenetrable. And without the economic mobility that allows us to visit the great galleries of the world, or the leisure time to go to a museum just a few train stops away, art can easily exceed our 

The New York City Bar Association LGBT Rights Committee has published "Know Your Rights: A Guide to NYC Employment Laws for LGBT Workers."

The NYC Bar Association notes that this pamphlet is designed to provide general legal information to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) individuals who have questions about their workplace rights and employment laws applicable in New York City. This pamphlet does not provide legal advice, and is not a substitute for legal advice. The NYC Bar Association encourages individuals with questions about their rights 

Guest post by Perry Brass.

Lenny Ebreo, Marc Rabinowitz, and I were thrilled about the forum that took place at Washington Square Methodist Church in 1972. Because of the forum, Lenny now had some connection with the New York City Department of Public Health, which after John Lindsey's administration had been re-organized around local community health centers. He began to fixate on the idea of community health. If we could get our community healthy, in mind and body, it would genuinely come together. He revealed a bombshell idea: we'd open our own gay health clinic in the 

Guest post by Avram Finkelstein.

As a founding member of the political collective that produced the image most closely associated with AIDS activism, Silence=Death, I'm frequently asked to speak about this poster. Over the decades people have thanked me for it, telling me the poster was the rallying cry that drew them to political activism.

I have a slightly different take on that. In essence and intention, the political poster is a public thing. It comes to life in the public sphere, and is academic outside of it. 

A guest post by Perry Brass.

Sometimes it's difficult to realize looking back at an activity how far ahead it was. But for the three founders—Leonard Ebreo, Marc Rabinowitz, and myself—of the Gay Men's Health Project Clinic, the first clinic for gay men on the East Coast, opening in 1972 in an unfinished concrete basement at 247 West Eleventh Street in Greenwich Village—this wasn't difficult. We just had no idea how far reaching the term "gay men's health" would become. But we knew the clinic was vitally 

While the Library's collections related to HIV and AIDS in both the Manuscripts Division and the General Research Division are especially rich, the Library also provides access to electronic resources that supplement the print holdings.

Heather likes pairs, and one of her favorite pairs is her two mamas: Mama Jane and Mama Kate. Kate is a doctor, Jane is a carpenter, and Heather helps them both with their jobs. The girl loves to go outside for picnics with her mothers when the weather is nice.

Then, Heather joins a play group and finds out that some kids have fathers, but she does not. This makes Heather very sad, but then she realizes that some other kids have two fathers and no mother or a mother, step-father, and father, but they do not live with their father. Teacher Molly lets the kids know that 

Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, a candid, semi-autobiographical novel about coming to terms with a lesbian identity, brought to the forefront the question of whether or not the frank portrayal of lesbianism in a book was grounds for charges of obscenity. First published July 1928 in England by Jonathan Cape, The Well was soon seized and criminalized for violating the Obscene Publications Act of 1857, which stated "The 

V.D. is no camp, Mattachine Society of New YorkOne of my favorite objects in the exhibition isn't about AIDS at all. It's a small brochure by the Mattachine Society of New York. Titled "VD is No Camp," the small brochure tries to speak in a funny direct way from one gay man to another about the risks of love and desire. I included it in the show because it points to something very 

Greetings, and welcome to Banned Books Week! For each day of Banned Books Week, this blog will be highlighting a famous banned or challenged book. The campaign to highlght milestones in the history of banned and challenged books and promote intellectual freedom was spearheaded by library activist Judith Krug. She once said "You should have access to ideas and information regardless of your age. If anyone is going to limit or guide a young person, it should be the parent or guardian—and 

Last June, I reserved some LGBTQ books, made a flier proclaiming "Celebrate Pride" and displayed the books. Then I held my breath not knowing how this would go over. The books got some circulation but barely.

Given yesterday's historic Supreme Court decision overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, it's good to take a moment to look back at the struggles for marriage equality.

In many current debates about the direction of LGBT political struggles, marriage equality has been portrayed as a conservative move after the radicalism of 1970s Gay Liberation and later Queer politics. However, a closer look reveals that LGBT activists have been deeply concerned over the right to marry since the start of modern gay