Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Processing Information
Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Related Material
Descriptive Summary
Title: L. A. Gay & Lesbian Center records
Dates: 1946-2005
Bulk Dates: 1971-1977
Collection number: Coll2007-010
Creator:
L. A. Gay & Lesbian
Center
Collection Size: 16 record storage boxes + 2
archive boxes + 5 boxes (unprocessed) 16.2 linear feet + 3.3
linear feet (unprocessed)
Repository:
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.
Los Angeles, California 90007
Languages: Languages
represented in the collection: English
Access
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access
restrictions.
Publication Rights
Researchers wishing to publish materials must obtain permission in
writing from ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives as the physical owner.
Researchers must also obtain clearance from the holder(s) of any copyrights in
the materials. Note that ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives can grant
copyright clearance only for those materials for which we hold the copyright.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain copyright clearance for
all other materials directly from the copyright holder(s).
Preferred Citation
L. A. Gay & Lesbian Center records, Coll2007-010, ONE National Gay
and Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Acquisition Information
Date and manner of acquisition not known.
Processing Information
Formerly housed in boxes 103-230, 103-233, 103-312, 104-101 through
104-114, 104-116, and 104-117. Collection processed by Michael Palmer,
May
2007.
Processing this collection has been funded
by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.
Administrative History
In Spring 1971, a group of activists from the Gay Liberation Front (GLF)
and the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) held a series of meetings at the
home of GLF activist John Platania, to create an organization to provide social
services for members of the gay and lesbian community, many of whom were
marginalized and on the street, in the Hollywood/Silverlake area of the city of
Los Angeles and in the adjoining unincorporated area of West Hollywood, in Los
Angeles County. Platania, who had worked for the Los Angeles Community
Development Agency, drew up a detailed development plan for a nonprofit
corporation to offer services based on the gay hot line and services for street
people instituted by the MCC, and the Liberation House, a crisis housing
facility at 1168 North Edgemont, in Hollywood, opened by the GLF's Survival
Committee. The formal proposal, prepared by GLF activist Don Kilhefner, was
submitted on July 14, 1971, and the articles of incorporation were signed by
Morris Kight, June Herrle, James Kepner, and John Platania on July 22, 1971.
The articles were filed in the office of the California Secretary of State on
January 4, 1972.
The Gay Community Services Center opened its doors in October 1971, in a
run-down Victorian house designed by William Eastlake, at 1614 Wilshire
Boulevard. A second Liberation House, at 1322 North Van Ness Avenue (formerly a
residence of filmmaker Jack Warner) and a Gaywill Funky Thrift Shoppe, at
1519-1521 Griffith Park Boulevard, were already in operation. Kilhefner was
appointed the Center's first Executive Director.
The Center initially provided hotline, information, referral,
counseling, housing, education, and employment services; a venereal disease
clinic was opened in October 1972. Services were provided free of charge, with
the exception of housing for which a nominal per diem fee was charged. In
accordance with the founders' concept of "community", the Center was staffed
entirely by gays and lesbians. In addition, most of the staff, including
professionals and paraprofessionals, were volunteers, although a small number
of full-time core staff members received minimal "survival stipends". The
Internal Revenue Service refused to grant the Center non-profit status until
April 1974, and as the Center was unable to obtain government funding without
this certification, it was forced to depend entirely upon donations for the
first year of its existence. In 1972, the Center served approximately 75,000
persons with a staff of 85 full-time and part-time volunteers; its income was
reported at $41,678.
In November 1972, the Center received its first grant, of approximately
$20,000, for a drug education program, from the National Free Clinic Council
(NFCC). Kilhefner and Center Administrative Director Ken Bartley also served as
co-directors of a similar grant awarded the Los Angeles Consortium of Free
Clinics. The granting of non-profit status by the Internal Revenue Service in
April 1974 enabled the Center to apply for public funding, and between August
and November the Center received federal and local government grants totaling
$410,281, to fund its medical and alcohol and drug abuse programs. The
three-year grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA) to fund the Center's Women's Alcohol Program (WAP) was worth $1
million, a windfall unprecedented for any gay group in the world, and the
Center thereby became the first institution with the word "gay" in its name to
receive federal funding.
Early in 1975, the building at 1614 Wilshire Boulevard was condemned,
and the Center, which had been searching since late 1974 for new quarters,
obtained a lease, with option to purchase, on a building at 1213 North Highland
Avenue. In April 1975, on the eve of the Center's move to its new home, two
events nearly destroyed the Center. An attempt by Center management to divert
some of the NIAAA funds to other Center programs was vigorously protested by
the WAP program director, Brenda Weathers, and resulted in the transfer of the
grant from the Center to a newly incorporated, independent Alcoholism Center
for Women, which remains in existence today. At the same time, a conflict arose
between lesbian feminist members of the staff and what they perceived to be the
Center's patriarchal male-dominated hierarchy. The controversy resulted in the
firing of eleven staff members, who in return picketed the Center's new
facility on Highland Avenue. The issue, which resulted in the alienation of
many donors as well as a significant portion of the lesbian community, was not
resolved until 1978. Nevertheless, a number of lesbian activists, including
Lillene Fifield, who had been instrumental in obtaining the NIAAA grant,
remained with the Center on the grounds that the Center's work in helping the
marginalized members of the gay and lesbian community outweighed the sexism
evidenced in some quarters.
The Center's programs, in particular the Venereal Disease Control
Program, which by providing a safe space for testing was able to identify and
treat sexually transmitted diseases earlier than the Los Angeles County Health
Department, thus saving the county money, had earned the Center the support of
local politicians, in particular county supervisor Ed Edelman and city
councilwoman Peggy Stevenson. Thus, despite the controversies of early 1975 the
Center continued to expand: annual income for 1975 was $527,050, and for 1976
was $645,306. By this time the number of professional and nonprofessional
volunteers had grown to 250, and the salaried staff to 44.
The rapid growth of the Center in the mid 1970s was made possible by the
generosity of the Democratic administration of President Jimmy Carter: in
particular, by 1981, CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) funds
totaled nearly $500,000, (approximately one-third of the Center's $1.8 million
budget, and provided the salaries of 41 of the Center's 85 paid staff. The
Reagan administration, however, eliminated many social service funding
programs, and slashed the budgets of those that remained. Anticipating the end
of federal funding for the Center, the Center Board of Directors instituted a
robust private donor program to free the Center from the vicissitudes of
government funding. Steve Schulte, Executive Director of the Center from 1979
to 1983, who had earned a political science degree from Yale and had worked for
the Los Angeles City Council, recast the Center, which had retained the
"casualness about dress and rules" of its founders, as a serious, "respectable"
institution that would appeal to mainstream donors.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports,
proposals, contracts, accounting and finance records, flyers, brochures,
calendars, notes, press releases, photographs, resumes, and other materials
relating to the founding and activities of the Gay Community Services Center
(now the L. A. Gay & Lesbian Center) in Los Angeles. The core of the
collection consists of records for the period 1971-1977. These materials were
probably transferred to Jim Kepner's archives sometime in the late 1970s or
early 1980s. An inventory of the collection made at or about the time of its
transfer, indicates that the records were originally filed in four file drawers
and three boxes; although by the time the collection was processed the
materials listed had been randomly dispersed between 19 boxes, it was possible
to identify most of the materials from the original deposit, and the collection
has been arranged to follow as much as possible the original order. The
remainder of the collection, covering the period from the late 1970s to the
early 2000s, consists of materials collected by Kepner and others; these
materials were found stuffed in boxes with no apparent arrangement or order.
Those materials considered important to an understanding of the history and
activities of the Center have been integrated into the collection; the
remaining documents, consisting largely of direct fundraising, promotional, and
what appear to be duplicate materials, have been placed in boxes at the end of
the collection, and will be processed and integrated into the collection as
time permits.
Of the corporate records of the Center, the minutes of the Board of
Directors are incomplete except for the years 1987-1988. However, minutes or
drafts do survive for the critical months of April and May 1975, which,
together with other materials in the collection, provide a fairly full account
of the developments surrounding the dismissal of the Feminist 11, and the
subsequent strike that threatened to destroy the Center. The records include
extensive notes by Morris Kight: while some of these may have been part of the
original deposit, the majority appear to have been sent by Kight (who was
obsessed with his legacy) to Kepner at a later date. Note that much of Kight's
material from 1973 and 1974 was typed on chemically treated paper, which has
now darkened to the extent that the original writing is difficult, if not
impossible, to read. An important file of correspondence with the Internal
Revenue Service, which refused to grant the Center tax exempt status, thereby
effectively denying it access to federal funding, until 1974, reveals the
homophobia pervasive within government agencies in the 1970s.
Of the administrative records, the General Correspondence, Staff Memos,
Management Collective, and Program Directors files are the most useful for
tracing the daily operations of the Center. The 1971 organizational study,
which constituted the blueprint for the Center, documents the extensive
planning that preceded the creation of the institution. The Center in its early
years had difficulty keeping accurate financial records, which may explain the
relatively few financial statements in the collection; to offset the absence of
these records, certain accounting materials, which would normally have been
de-accessioned, have been retained. Publicity materials include correspondence
with local newspapers concerning homophobic content and documents relating to
the Center's response to the portrayal of gays and lesbians in television
programs. Photographs include a series taken in 1971 by Lee Mason of the
Center's original offices at 1614 Wilshire Boulevard and of the Funky Gaywill
Shoppe on Griffith Park Boulevard; photographs from the 1980s and 1990s derive
largely from the office of Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman, and
document his work on behalf of the Center.
Records of its various fundraising programs indicate how aggressive and
inventive the Center was at raising funds. The records of the Wilshire
Volunteer Services Fund, set up in 1972 to obtain general donations in cash and
kind, and of the Building Fund, set up in 1976 to purchase the Highland Avenue
facility, are particularly full, and include correspondence and receipt books.
Correspondence files document the Center's unsuccessful attempts in the 1970s
to obtain funding from private foundations. The extensive correspondence and
funding proposal files of the Public Funding Task Force, led by Morris Kight,
document the Center's aggressive pursuit of funding from all levels of city,
county, state, and federal government. The Calendars and Events series includes
records of fundraising events, including yard sales, celebrity roasts, gala
dinners and receptions, and special theatrical events
The largest series in the collection comprises correspondence,
memoranda, reports, proposals, contracts, accounting and finance records,
flyers, brochures, notes, and other materials relating to the programs offered
by the Center. The materials are fullest for government-funded programs, and
document in particular the Center's drug education program funded by the
National Free Clinic Council, 1972-1974; the Alcoholism Program for Women
(APW), 1974-1975; the activities of the Van Ness House in the Center's
Alcohol/Drug Abuse Program; and the Venereal Disease Control Program (VDCP;
from 1977: Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Program, STDCP) and other
medical programs. The records of the National Free Clinic Council program
contain information on populations outside the gay and lesbian community, as
Don Kilhefner and Ken Bartley also served as co-directors of the Los Angeles
County Council of Free Clinics' drug education program. The Alcoholism Program
for Women, funded by a three-year, almost $1 million grant from the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, was removed from Center jurisdiction
and transferred to the newly incorporated Alcoholism Center for Women in June
1975.
Other programs for which materials survive include CETA (Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act), a job training and placement program under which
the Center also paid the salaries of almost half its paid staff. The records of
the Educational Outreach program include correspondence of the Speakers'
Bureau, which provided trained speakers for school and college classes and
civic groups. The records of the Housing program include lists of residents of
several of the Center's "Liberation Houses", for short-term emergency housing.
The records of the Resource and Referral program include a resource binder with
additional fact sheets on gay and lesbian (and gay and lesbian supportive)
institutions, organizations, and businesses. The Center also promoted the
self-development of members of the gay and lesbian community and the records of
the Self-Development program include materials by Betty Berzon and Newt Deiter
on group and peer counseling, as well as materials on raps, growth groups, and
workshops.
Many of the program files contain correspondence with Los Angeles
politicians, in particular City Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson and County
Supervisor Ed Edelman, who vigorously supported the Center and its activities.
In addition, the records of the Center's political activity include
correspondence from 1975 with California assembly leaders on the
decriminalization of consensual private acts, and with the offices of Los
Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and District Attorney John Van De Kamp. A major goal
of the Center was to improve relations between the Los Angeles police and the
gay community, and additional documents on this issue can be found in the
Subject Files series. The records of the Prison, Probation and Parole program,
which assisted the reintegration into society of gay prisoners (including those
incarcerated for consensual sexual activities decriminalized in California in
1976), include correspondence with prisoners, probation officers, and prison
officials.
The extent and nature of the services offered by the Center to women and
youth was the subject of considerable discussion in the 1970s, more radical
lesbians, in particular, feeling that their concerns were overlooked and
marginalized. The records of the Youth Services program, known in its earliest
years as Gay Youth of Los Angeles, are fragmentary, but include a manual for
Center youth workers, circa 1972. The records of the Women's Services program
are only slightly more complete, but include the proposal and contract for the
Lesbian Resource Program for Self-Development (the forerunner to Lesbian
Central of the 1980s), funded by the Los Angeles County General Revenue Sharing
(GRS) program.
The collection contains an incomplete set of newsletters published by
the Center, including some printed for the general public, and others for
"internal" circulation. The People series contains materials relating to
individuals connected in one way or another to the Center: the files for
activist Morris Kight and County Supervisor Ed Edelman, in particular, document
their roles in the Center's history and development. The Subject Files series
contains a small number of original subject files found among the Center
records. These include a police file, with correspondence, memoranda, and other
materials relating to the Center's work to improve relations between the Los
Angeles Police Department and the gay and lesbian community, and Linda
Poverny's 1984 PhD thesis on the management of the Center during its first ten
years.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Alcoholism Center for Women (Los Angeles,
Calif.)
Alcoholism counseling
Community health services--California
Edelman, Ed (Edmund),
1930-
Fifield, Lillene
Gay & Lesbian Community Services
Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Gay and Lesbian Community Services
Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Gay Community Services Center (Los
Angeles, Calif.)
Gay men--Diseases
Gays--Alcohol use
Gays--Health and hygiene
Gays--Medical care
Gays--Services for
Human services--California--Los Angeles
Kepner, Jim (James),
1923-1997
Kight, Morris, 1919-2003
Kilhefner, Don, 1939-
L. A. Gay & Lesbian
Center
Lesbians--Alcohol use
Lesbians--Diseases
Lesbians--Services for
Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian
Center
Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian
Center
Sexually transmitted diseases--Prevention
Social work with gays
Social work with lesbians
Southern California Council of Free
Clinics
Stevenson, Peggy
Related Material
Jim Long Papers, Coll2007-011, ONE National Gay & Lesbian
Archives.
Lillene H. Fifield Papers, Coll2007-014, ONE National Gay & Lesbian
Archives.