A Guide to the Lesbian Issues Collection, 1975-1991

Historical Sketch

Beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s, a number of social movements began to organize, such as the Women’s Rights Movement and the Gay Liberation movement. The Women’s Rights movement aims to achieve freedoms and entitlements for women and girls, along with equal rights for women and men. Gay Liberation and other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) social movements aim for the social acceptance of sexual and gender minorities, and for gays and lesbians to "come out" to their families and friends and participate in gay pride activities.

Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944) is an American writer and political activist in the American Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movement, the Gay Liberation movement, and the feminist movement. She is the bestselling author of a number of novels, most famously Rubyfruit Jungle (1973), and has also written autobiographies, a cookbook, and screenplays.

Scope and Contents

The Lesbian Issues Collection, 1975-1991, includes newsletters, magazines, correspondence, clippings, and ephemera pertaining to women’s issues, equal rights, Gay and Lesbian issues, and socialist movements. Some journals and magazines of note in the collection include Amazon Quarterly, Moonstorm, Lesbian Tide, Black Belt Woman, Socialist Review, and Plexus. The collection also includes a book of special note, the Civil Rights Directory, 1975. Also included in the collection are two letters from Rita Mae Brown to "Trella/Patricia" and "Sweeties" (1975-1976).

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Unrestricted use.

Separated Material

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Lesbian Issues Collection, 1975-1991, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Brent Carnell, June 1991.

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project, 2009-2011.

Detailed Description of the Papers