Gay Day at ALA

(At the Stonewall Book Awards, l-r, Richard & John, with Alison Bechdel accepting her award.)

I guess you could say that today was gay day for me at the ALA Conference.

I began the morning attending the Jean Coleman Library Outreach Lecture that was given this year posthumously to Barbara Gittings, the second chair of the forerunner to the current GLBT Round Table. A leading gay rights pioneer and library activist from the 50s, 60s and 70s, Gittings died earlier this year in Philadelphia. As one of the earliest activists, Gittings worked to get the American Psychiatry Association to drop homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, as well as a protester at the Pentagon, the White House and in front of the Liberty Bell. Although not a librarian, she was passionate about having access to gay literature in libraries and the role of libraries to provide literature and books that individuals who were struggling to understand their sexuality could read to discover who they were and that there were others like them. For her work she received many awards; among them a gay fiction award named in her honor, a lifetime membership in ALA, and the pleasure of seeing a plaque near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA that mentions those early demonstrations.

Following the recollections on Gittings work, I attended the 36th Annual Stonewall Book Awards Brunch, in which one of the awards, the Barbara Gittings Award for Fiction is named after her, and the other award, the Israel Fishman Award for Nonfiction, is named in honor of the founder of the GLBT Round Table.

One of the tasks that I have been working on for the past year is serving as Fundraising Chair of the GLBT Round Table where I am working to help the Round Table reach its $75,000 goal to endow the Stonewall Book Awards. During the past 12 months more than $15,000 has been raised, bringing the endowment to approximately $60,000, 80 percent of the goal. It was my honor to announce this accomplishment before the honors were given out, thank our major donors so far, and to push for completing the goal by next year and ask those present to contribute. (We raised an additional $500 on the spot.)

This year the winner of the Barbara Gittings Award for Fiction went to Andrew Holleran for his book, Grief; (a really wonderful and moving book set in Washington, DC) and the Israel Fishman Award for Nonfiction went to Alison Bechdel for her book, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Although Hollaran was unable to be present, Bechdel told of her love of words and books which in many ways she said were like a "ping pong ball - feelings that were told in words which in turn through the language of books led me back to those feelings and taking action." "Libraries create a map to the world; and, although you try to get a complete picture of the world, it is impossible. But through the miracle of words, we are led to see ourselves and others, and to discover the many worlds in which we live and have lived."

Then, to close out the day, I went to hear Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City, whose new book, Michael Tolliver Lives, just came out. He was the keynoter for the Public Library Association’s President’s Program. (He was filling in for Elizabeth Edwards who he said had been in San Francisco for Gay Pride there on Sunday). “Elizabeth is in San Francisco addressing the queers,” he said, “and you have a queer from San Francisco addressing librarians.”

Interestingly enough, he took the time to address the major questions he has received as a writer for more than 30 years. In doing this, he told us about how he fell into writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, how he had originally got his start in writing through his family’s ties to former Senator Jesse Helms, and how his recent book grew out of his desire to bring back his character from the Tales of the City in much the same way that so many others who have been living with AIDS have too. “I am 63 he said, and as a gay man from San Francisco that is remarkable. Each of us as older gay men should rejoice in our age,” he said. He also related how he had found love again, something he never dreamed possible. Maupin was funny, chatty, and I am looking forward to reading another one of his incredible stories of life in San Francisco.