Typescripts and Questionnaires for The Gay Report

Approximately 1979

Karla Jay (1947-), author and historian of the gay experience, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and educated at Barnard College and at New York University where she received her doctorate. Having regretted a lack of good books written by gays about gays when she was growing up she resolved as an adult to devote a part of her life to recording and documenting the gay experience. With her collaborator, Allen Young, she has published several anthologies of writings by gays and lesbians including Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation (Douglas Books, 1972); After You're Out: Personal Experiences of Gay Men and Lesbian Women (Links Books,1976); and Lavender Culture (Harcourt, 1979).

In the late 1970's Jay and Young compiled a comprehensive survey and documentary of gay and lesbian sexuality entitled The Gay Report: Lesbians and Gay Men Speak Out about Sexual Experiences and Lifestyles (N.Y., Summit Books, 1979). The work was based upon a sixteen page questionnaire divided into two sections, one for lesbians and one for gay men which was widely distributed in the gay community and also reprinted in the gay and lesbian press. Most of the 100 questions on the survey were of the multiple choice or short-answer type although there were several essay questions designed to be answered separately. All of the respondents were anonymous. By compiling and publishing the responses the authors hoped to lessen the aura of mystery surrounding gay and lesbian sexuality and diminish some of the enmity directed towards gays and lesbians by the heterosexual community.

Allen Young (1941- ), free lance writer, editor, journalist and publisher has written Gays under the Cuban Revolution (Grey Fox Press, 1981). He has worked as a reporter for the New York Times, the Washington Post and from 1979 for the Athol Daily News, Athol, Mass. In 1983 he founded the Millers River Publishing Co.