National Lesbian Conference records, 1989-1991

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Summary

Title:
National Lesbian Conference records
Dates:
1989-1991
Creators:
National Lesbian Conference (1991 : Atlanta, Ga.)
Abstract:
The National Lesbian Conference was the first and only of its kind, attempting to set a national lesbian activist agenda. The event took place in Atlanta, Georgia in 1991 and drew over 2,500 registered attendees. The gathering was comprised of one full day of caucuses, five plenaries, four mornings of anti-oppression training and slightly fewer than three hundred workshops. This collection contains pre-planning materials as well as a conference program and news coverage of the conference.
Extent:
0.4 Linear Feet (1 box)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], National Lesbian Conference Records (Collection 2202). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains pre-planning materials as well as a conference program and news coverage of The National Lesbian Conference, held at the civic center in Atlanta, Georgia in 1991.

Biographical / historical:

The National Lesbian Conference was the first and only of its kind, attempting to set a national lesbian activist agenda. The event took place in Atlanta, Georgia in 1991 and drew over 2,500 registered attendees. The gathering was comprised of one full day of caucuses, five plenaries, four mornings of anti-oppression training and slightly fewer than three hundred workshops.

The Conference became a concept after the American attendees at an international lesbian conference in 1986 felt that they had no unified voice due to a lack of national lesbian agenda. In 1988, a few American lesbians met in Washington D.C. to plan a national lesbian conference. Subsequently, planning meetings were held in North Carolina, Oregon, and Missouri. Meetings operated by modified consensus. Consensus and parity (defined as 50% lesbians of color, 20% disabled lesbians and 5% old lesbians) were of prime importance. The full steering committee, with over 100 seats to represent many different interest groups, was never fully seated. Although the ostensible goal of the conference was to decide collectively on a national lesbian agenda, the goal remained elusive. The conference became fertile ground for intra-organizational conversations about representation and the political process, but a fair amount of strife and dissent plagued much of the conversation.

Acquisition information:

Provenance unknown.

This collection is part of an outreach and collection-building partnership between the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the UCLA Library .

Processing information:

Processed by Stacy Wood, 2013. Description enhanced and further physical processing completed by Sabrina Ponce in 2017.

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

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Arrangement:

Materials arranged by type.

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Stacy Wood, 2013; Sabrina Ponce, 2017; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2022-08-16 12:29:07 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], National Lesbian Conference Records (Collection 2202). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website