Scope and arrangement
The collection documents the gay liberation movement in New York City and America from the 1950s to the 1980s. Included are records of the Gay Activists Alliance, the Gay Alliance of Brooklyn, Gay Switchboard of New York, the Mattachine Society Inc. of New York, and records of miscellaneous organizations including Christopher Street That New Magazine, Inc., and the periodicals Gaysweek, and New York Native. Personal papers include papers of Lockett Ford Ballard, Jr., Arthur Bell, Billy Wilder Blackwell, Perry Brass, Robert Clement, Don Jackson, Walter Porczak, and Sam Staggs. There are also miscellaneous records of IGIC, including correspondence, minutes, memoranda, photographs of gay rights demonstrations, scripts of plays by gay writers, and printed ephemera issued by gay, lesbian and AIDS organizations in the United States.|||Audiovisual materials include recorded interviews with gay leaders such as Hal (Harold) Call, Curtis Dewees, Franklin Kameny, James Kepner, Morris Kight, Henry (Harry) Hay, Dorr Legg, and Donald Lucas, which chronicle the history of early gay and lesbian organizations such as the Mattachine Society, One, Inc., the Daughters of Bilitis, the Society for Individual Rights, and the Gay Liberation Front. There are also sound recordings of a number of radio and television programs on gay-related issues, most of which were broadcast on Pacifica Radio stations in the early 1980s. These record news and issues of concern to the gay community, such as bias crimes, homophobia, and the spread of AIDS. In addition, the collection includes recordings of lectures, conferences, public forums, and other meetings organized by gay and lesbian groups, some of which include performances by gay entertainers. Most of these gatherings took place in the New York City area in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Audiovisual materials also include television programs (and outtakes) produced in the early 1970s for broadcast on Open Channel, a public access cable channel in New York City. In addition, there are two erotic films, and a documentary entitled, "A Gay View/Male," which was released in 1974.