Gittings Article

Gittings’ article is a unique historical perspective in comparison with some of the other articles that we’ve read because it is a comprehensive history of the fight for gay rights and recognition in the ALA and Gittings is not a librarian but an activist who cares about the written word.

In lots of ways the activism of GTF was very simple. Not that overcoming centuries of silence and discrimination is easy but their approach was. For example, the Hug-a-Homosexual booth simply but provocatively made their presence known and attempted to start a dialogue. The Gay Bibliography was a great way to voice the presence of gay and gay friendly librarians who saw these books as important to collections and also to bring the gay patron into the focus of library services. Gittings gives an anecdotal account of her experience of researching homosexuality in the library and points out that because it is one of the first places that one might go and it is a place that one can learn discreetly it’s vital that libraries carefully choose items that cover taboo subjects such as homosexuality.

Just as activism fought for seemingly small changes triumphs were made in apparently small ways. The use of “gay” instead of “homosexual” and the addition of the new Library of Congress number for the Gay Liberation Movement where matters of language being used but a good activist know it makes a big different. Gay activist are lucky in the sense that they can learn tactics from all the civil rights movements that came before them.