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Reh (Lawrence), Los Angeles City Council Liaison to the Gay Community Records
Coll2016-005
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Title: Lawrence Reh Los Angeles City Council Liaison to the Gay Community records
creator:
Reh, Lawrence
Identifier/Call Number: Coll2016-005
Physical Description:
0.4 Linear Feet
1 box
Date (inclusive): 1975-1977
Abstract: Correspondence, press releases, meeting minutes, to-do lists, clippings and flyers written and/or collected by Lawrence A.
Reh while he served as Liaison to the Gay Community, Offices of the City Council, 13th District, Los Angeles, California,
from 1975 to 1977. The records document the activity of Councilperson Peggy Stevenson's office, most notably regarding job
discrimination based upon sexual orientation, and to a lesser degree the activities of various political committees and LGBT
organizations.
Container: 1
Lawrence A. Reh was born in Chicago, Illinois, but raised in a small downstate farming community. He earned his Bachelor
of Arts degree from Bradley University with dual majors in psychology and political science, and minors in journalism, Russian
language and English literature. He did graduate study in adolescent psychology at Western Illinois University and later
earned a Master of Divinity degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary.
Reh's multi-career resume includes five years as a journalist-photographer with the Decatur (Illinois) Review (Lindsay-Schaub
Newspapers), winning several awards from the Associated Press and the Inland Daily Press Association, and two years each as
news editor of The Advocate (while in its original format as a biweekly national newspaper) and NewsWest, both Transgender,
Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual community publications in Los Angeles. While in Illinois, Reh served as public information officer
for the newly-created state Environmental Protection Agency. His first community activism was in the Springfield Gay and
Lesbian Alliance and also as a founding member of Illinois Gays for Legislative Action, in which capacity he lobbied publicly
to gain TLGB job security in state government, lost the confidence of a newly-elected governor and, though officially protected
by Civil Service law, was relieved of any meaningful EPA duties. He moved to California, spent a brief time in the San Francisco
Bay Area, then accepted the editorship of the Advocate in Los Angeles. When that publication was sold and moved to San Mateo,
he stayed in Los Angeles to work with other remaining colleagues, founded the short-lived community paper Entertainment West
with John Rowberry, then became news editor of the fledgling community paper NewsWest, from which post he was later recruited
by Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson's office to become her gay community liaison, a post funded by a federal grant. He was let
go from that position when the grant expired, under mutual agreement that his scope of authority and responsibilities was
insufficient to justify continuation in a period of political hostility, challenge and change.
During his Los Angeles years, he was active with community leaders – Morris Kight, Troy Perry, Jeanne Cordova, Don Kilhefner,
Jim Kepner, Teresa DeCrescenzo, Betty Berzon and many others – in challenging police oppression and corruption, working with
homeless TLGB youth, and lobbying for greater acceptance and recognition. He moved back to the Bay Area in 1979 to work in
legal research and services unconnected with TLGB activism, but was involved in providing early logistical support for response
to the emerging AIDS crisis in the early 1980s through the law offices of Dinkelspiel & Dinkelspiel.
In growing dissatisfaction with politics, Reh concluded that one of the greatest obstacles to community progress was the promotion
of anti-gay attitudes by religious groups, and he revived his very early youthful attraction to parish ministry. At San Francisco
Theological Seminary, he organized a cross-denominational full-semester class for credit through the Berkeley-centered Graduate
Theological Union, entitled "Lesbian and Gay in Church and Society," with nationally-noted guest lecturers and required community
field experiences. He received his Master of Divinity degree in 1994 and worked with activists in several denominations,
especially the Presbyterian Church (USA), to broaden acceptance and support for TLGB caucuses in their midst, and access to
ordination. He was particularly active in Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, That All May Freely Serve, and More
Light Presbyterians. In 1999 he founded First Light Ministries, an online outreach to excluded and disaffected TLGB spiritual
seekers, which eventually claimed some 500 members in 14 countries who regarded it as their "church." Though nominally in
retirement, he continues those efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area as of April, 2016. He has written for a wide variety
of periodicals and has preached, taught classes and led seminars at several universities. He has also published a volume
of his poetry, If I Could Crown Your Hills with Gold (1978).
Reh, Lawrence. Your Papers At ONE Archives. March 25, 2016. E-mail.
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Date and method of acquisition unknown.
[Box 1, folder #,] Lawrence Reh Los Angeles City Council Liaison to the Gay Community Records, Coll2016-005, ONE National
Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Collection processed by Joseph Klice, April 2016.
Correspondence, press releases, meeting minutes, to-do lists, clippings, and flyers written and/or collected by Lawrence A.
Reh while he served as Liaison to the Gay Community, Offices of the City Council, 13th District, Los Angeles, California,
from 1975 to 1977. The records document the activity of Councilperson Peggy Stevenson's office, most notably regarding job
discrimination based upon sexual orientation, and to a lesser degree the activities of various political committees and LGBT
organizations.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission
for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Discrimination in employment -- California -- Los Angeles
Correspondence
Gay activists
Stevenson, Peggy