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Title: Dignity/USA records
Dates: 1956-2002
Bulk Dates: (bulk
1971-1988)
Collection number: 2007-004
Creator:
Dignity, Inc.
Collection Size: 47.8 linear feet
(94 archive boxes).
Repository:
ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.
Los Angeles, California 90007
Abstract: Records of Dignity/USA, the oldest organization
for Roman Catholic members of the GLBT community, from it's founding in 1969
until the early 1990s. The materials include correspondence, minutes, motions,
and work papers of the organization's Board of Directors and House of
Delegates; records of Dignity's biennial National Conventions; correspondence
files of Dignity officers, including Joseph Killian (Joe Gilgamesh), the first
elected president of Dignity; and extensive subject files, containing
correspondence, reports, press releases, notes, copies of magazine and
newspaper articles, and other materials relating to Dignity's day-to-day
operations, its efforts to obtain recognition from the Roman Catholic
hierarchy, both within the United States and at the Vatican, of the spiritual
needs of gays and lesbians, and its active participation in the secular
movement for the recognition of GLBT civil rights. Additional materials include
records of the regions and chapters into which Dignity is divided; the
materials relating to the Los Angeles chapter, always the largest in the
organization, are particularly extensive. The collection also includes a
collection of photographs and slides documenting the history of Dignity, and
extensive files of newsletters published by the national office and by each
region and chapter.
Languages: Languages
represented in the collection: English
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access
restrictions.
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).
Box #, folder #, Dignity/USA records, Coll2007-004, ONE National Gay and
Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, California.
Date of acquisition unknown.
Collection processed by Yolanda Alaniz, November 2006-May 2007.
Processing this collection has been funded
by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.
Early in 1969, Father Patrick X. Nidorf, an Augustinian priest and
psychologist in San Diego, began a ministry for gay and lesbian Roman Catholics
as an extension of his professional work. He chose the name "Dignity" to stress
his basic goal: to bring dignity into the spiritual and social lives of gay and
lesbian Catholics. Word of Nidorf's ministry spread, first by word of mouth,
then through advertisements Nidorf placed in the Los Angeles Free Press and
(beginning in January 1970) the Advocate. To guard against the possibility of
religious fanatics or homophobes disrupting or dominating meetings, Nidorf
required the return of a completed application form, and, when in doubt, a
personal interview. The monthly gatherings were open only to individuals over
21 years of age, with a membership card issued by Nidorf; annual dues were $5.
Nidorf also issued a simple monthly newsletter.
Although the early meetings alternated between San Diego and Los
Angeles, Nidorf soon moved all meetings to Los Angeles, where the great
majority of participants lived. In May 1970, Nidorf asked Bob Fournier to draw
up a constitution-known as the Statement of Position and Purpose-for Dignity,
and in June appointed him first General Chairman of the organization. In
September, Dignity held its first meeting on church property, in the basement
auditorium of St. Brendan's parish in Los Angeles.
The membership became increasingly active and early in 1971, against
Nidorf's advice, sought recognition from the diocese of Los Angeles. However,
coadjutor archbishop Timothy Manning found Dignity's principles "untenable",
and ordered Nidorf to cease his activities with the group. Nidorf therefore
resigned, and the leadership of Dignity passed permanently into lay hands.
Despite Nidorf's resignation, interest in Dignity continued to grow, and to
spread across the country: in November 1971, Dignity/Louisville became the
first chapter of Dignity outside Southern California. In February 1972, Dignity
held its first annual meeting, electing Joe Killian (known in Dignity as Joe
Gilgamesh) president. The organization at the time had 198 members, including
25 priests, four brothers, and two seminarians; 108 members lived in the Los
Angeles area, the others in twenty states and the District of Columbia, as well
as seven foreign countries. In March 1972, Dignity/Los Angeles (which separated
from San Diego and became a separate chapter in the fall of that year) began
meeting at the Los Angeles Community College Newman Center. Later in 1972,
Gilgamesh formed the Administrative Services Group (ASG) to oversee all aspects
of Dignity outside of Los Angeles. Pat Allen was made responsible for
overseeing all chapters outside of the Los Angeles area. In September and
October Gilgamesh and Allen toured the East Coast in support of Dignity, and by
the end of the year the organization had ten chapters, in Long Beach, Los
Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Louisville, Chicago, Washington,
DC, New York, and Boston. In 1973, Dignity held its first Biennial Convention
in Los Angeles.
Dignity allied itself with clergy and working with the gay and lesbian
community, including Sister Jeannine Gramick, and Fathers John McNeill, SJ,
Eugene Boyle, and Charles Curran, and with the Salvatorian Order's Gay Ministry
Task Force. It also received support from the National Federation of Priests
Councils and the National Assembly of Religious Brothers. In 1975, Dignity
published Father Robert Nugent's
Homosexuality: A Worksheet for Catholics ,
and
Homosexual Catholics: A Primer for
Discussion
, by Sister Jeannine Gramick and Fathers Robert Nugent and
Tom Oddo. In October 1976, Dignity was an official participant in the "Call to
Action" U.S. Bishops' Conference, intended to formulate a five-year plan of
social action for the nation's bishops. The conference's resolutions that the
church actively seek to serve the pastoral needs of homosexuals and that it
fight, in society and within its own structures, discrimination based on sexual
orientation, were presented to the National Conference of Bishops the following
year. In July 1977, in response to the defeat of a gay rights ordinance in Dade
County, Florida, Dignity joined with the Metropolitan Community Church, the
National Gay Task Force, and the Gay Rights National Lobby, in sponsoring a
National Gay leadership Conference in Denver. At the third Biennial Convention
held in Chicago in September 1977, Dignity adopted the structure it retains
today: a Board of Directors and House of Delegates, with chapters grouped into
regions. As the House of Delegates intended that Dignity eventually be a
national organization comprised solely of chapters within the United States,
the Canadian chapters that constituted Region XI later formed
Dignity/Canada/Dignit? as a separate organization. Also in 1977, Sister
Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent founded new Ways Ministry, a ministry
of Reconciliation and Social Justice for Catholic gays and lesbians.
In 1978, in response to Proposition 6, a proposal spearheaded by
California State Senator John Briggs to bar homosexuals from teaching in
California public schools, Jim Highland, Sister Eileen DeLong and Father Jim
Fleck formed Catholics for Human Dignity, the first state-registered political
lobby of Catholics advocating human rights for gay people. This group was
decisive in helping defeat Proposition 6. Dignity continued to be involved in
human right campaigns to benefit the gay community. In 1979, over 350 members
of Dignity from 27 chapters participated in the National March on Washington
for Lesbian and Gay Rights. That same year Dignity president Frank Scheuren,
along with the Rev. Troy Perry and representatives of the National Gay Task
Force and Gay Rights National Lobby presented nationwide petitions for Gay
Rights legislation to President Jimmy Carter's representatives at the White
House. In 1980, in tacit recognition of the importance of its work in the
political sphere, Dignity opened a permanent national office in Washington,
DC.
Although conservative members of the church hierarchy in the United
States had always opposed Dignity and its work, a few prominent bishops,
including Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen of Seattle, were supportive, and since
its foundation Dignity had been able to engage the National Conference of
Catholic Bishops in an ongoing dialog concerning gays and lesbians and the
church. The Vatican, however, was opposed to any ministry to the gay and
lesbian community, and as early as 1976 withdrew the imprimi potest for Father
John McNeill's
The Church and the Homosexual, and later
forbade him to write or speak on the issue of homosexuality "in any of its
aspects". In October 1986, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
released a
Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the
Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons
, defining homosexuality as "an
objective disorder" and banning groups that do not agree with church teachings
from using church facilities. As a consequence, Dignity chapters were not
permitted to hold meetings or celebrate mass on church property; the first
eviction of a chapter took place in December. At the same time, the Jesuit
Order instructed Father John McNeill to give up all public ministry to gays and
lesbians or be expelled from the Order; McNeill refused to comply. In response,
Dignity/USA placed a full-page advertisement in the April 27, 1987, issue of
Newsweek magazine, the first full-page,
full-circulation advertisement purchased by a national gay/lesbian
organization. Dignity issued its own
Letter on Pastoral Care of Gay and Lesbian
Persons
, outlining a positive approach to a variety of justice, sexual,
and ministry issues affecting gays and lesbians and their families, at the
organization's eighth Biennial Convention in Miami in July of that year.
Dignity's Task Force on Sexual Ethics, instituted in 1984, issued its report,
Sexual Ethics: Experience, Growth,
Challeng
e, in 1989.
Dignity has continued to play an active role in the movement for gay and
lesbian civil rights, sending one of the largest organizational contingents to
the 1993 March on Washington, and participating in the National Gay &
Lesbian Task Force's National Policy Round Table in 1998. It vigorously opposed
the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's
Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response
to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual
Persons
(1992), which urged bishops to oppose gay and lesbian civil
rights laws in such instances as child adoptions, employment of teachers, and
military recruitment, as well as the Vatican's
Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal
Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons
(2003), instructing
Catholic politicians and the public to oppose legal protections for same-sex
couples. On the other hand, despite its frequent disagreements with the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Dignity supported the Conference's
Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to the
Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers
(1997).
Sources:
Jim Highland.
Dignity; a brief history, 1969-1981. 1981.
Highlights of DignityUSA's History, 1969-present,
http://www.dignityusa.org/archives.history.html , (last
accessed June 20, 2007)
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection comprises records of Dignity/USA and its predecessors,
regions, and chapters, from the organization's founding in 1969 until the early
1990s. The materials relating to the organization's national office include
correspondence, minutes, motions, and work papers of the organization's Board
of Directors and Board of Consultors (later renamed House of Delegates). The
records also contain extensive correspondence files of Dignity officers,
including James Bussen, Paul Diederich, Robert Fournier, Tom Sena, Frank
Scheuren, and Paul Weidig; the files for Joseph Killian (also known as Joe
Gilgamesh), the first elected president of Dignity, are particularly extensive.
The national office subject files contain correspondence, reports, press
releases, notes, copies of magazine and newspaper articles, and other materials
relating to Dignity's day-to-day operations, its efforts to obtain validation
for gays and lesbians from the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and its relations with
similar groups from other religious denominations and with secular groups in
search of civil rights for gays and lesbians. Many of the letters in both the
correspondence and subject files vividly illustrate the internal conflict many
gay and lesbian Roman Catholics suffered, as they searched for a support system
to help them to integrate their sexual orientation with being Catholic. The
collection contains extensive records, including minutes, motions, information
packets, work papers, programs, and publicity, relating to Dignity's biennial
National Conventions. Records for the regions and chapters into which Dignity
was divided mirror in format, content, and arrangement those of the national
office. The materials relating to the Los Angeles chapter, always the largest
in the organization, which acted as a de facto headquarters until the creation
of the national office, are particularly extensive. The collection also
preserves extensive records relating to Dignity's full-page advertisement in
Newsweek magazine for April 27, 1987, in
response to the Vatican's October 1986
Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the
Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons
, including correspondence with both
Newsweek and
Time (which refused to publish the
advertisement), and favorable and unfavorable replies. The newspaper clippings
include articles from the mainstream religious and secular press, as well as
from the gay media. The materials also include a collection of photographs and
slides documenting meetings and conferences of Dignity, as well as officers and
other Dignity activists during the period 1970-1985 in particular. The
newsletter files include copies of most of the newsletters published by the
national office, as well as near-complete runs of many regional and chapter
newsletters, and issues of the quarterly
Insight, published by Dignity's New York
chapter.
- Series 1: National Office Files
-
- Subseries 1.1: Board of Directors/House of Delegates
-
Subseries 1.2: Correspondence -
- Subsubseries 1.2.1: General Correspondence
-
Subsubseries 1.2.2: Joseph Killlian (Gilgamesh)
-
Subseries 1.3: Subject Files
-
Series 2: National Convention Files -
Series 3: Region Files -
Series 4: Chapter Files -
- Subseries 4.1: Chapters
-
Subseries 4.2: Los Angeles, CA, Chapter -
- Subsubseries 4.2.1: General Correspondence
-
Subsubseries 4.2.2: Subject Files
-
Series 5: Newsweek Avertisement -
Series 6: Newspaper Clippings -
Series 7: Photographic Materials -
Series 8: Publications/Newsletters -
- Subseries 8.1: National/International Newsletters
-
Subseries 8.2: Region Newsletters -
Subseries 8.3: Chapter Newsletters
-
Series 9: Ephemera
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Catholic gays--Canada
Catholic gays--United States
Dignity, Inc.
Dignity/Los Angeles
Dignity/USA
Gay rights--Religious aspects--Catholic
Church
Gays--Religious life
Gays--Canada--History--20th Century
Gays--United States--History--20th Century
Homosexuality--History--20th century
Homosexuality--Religious aspects--Catholic
Church
Homosexuality--Religious
aspects--Christianity
Killian, Joseph, 1940-1989
Gilgamesh, Joe (pseudonym for Joseph
Killian)
Lesbians--Canada--History--20th century
Lesbians--Religious life
Lesbians--United States--History--20th
century