LGBT History Project

Date: July 1976

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Noteworthy news in this issues:

• "Pennsylvania Gay Pride Week: Legislators Freak Out" (p.3)
• "Dyke Cooper" (p.6)
• "Gay Pride Seventy-Six" (p.8)
• "Rural Caucus Report" (p.10)

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns Periodicals

Topics: Homophobia, PA House Bill 2220

Organizations: Homophiles of Penn State (HOPS), PA Rural Gay Caucus, Gay Era

View Item: Gay Era (Lancaster, PA) - July 1976

Date: June 1976

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Notable news in this issues:

• In the News (p.3)
• Rural Caucus Report (p.6)
• "James Dean: Was He or Wasn't He?" (p.5)
• Stonewall Remembered (p.10)

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns Periodicals

Topics: Gay Pride, Stonewall

Organizations: PA Governor's Council for Sexual Minorities, Gay Era, Lehigh Valley Homophile Organization (Le-Hi-Ho), West Chester Gays, PA Rural Gay Caucus, Homophiles of Penn State (HOPS), Gays United Lancaster (GUL), Gay Switchboard of Lancaster, Dignity/Central PA

View Item: Gay Era (Lancaster, PA) - June 1976

Date: March 1976

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. This is an anniversary issue. Noteworthy news in this issue includes:

• "State Hiring Regulations" (p.3)
• "Dyke Cooper" (p. 5)
• Rural Caucus Report (p. 7)
• "Shapp and Shrinks" (p. 9)
• "Reading (PA) Items" (p. 9) 
• "Council on Sexual Minorities" (p. 10)
• "Lebanon Items [Gay League of Lebanon]" (p. 11)
• "Pennsylvania Gays - It's Time" (p. 12)

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns Periodicals

Topics: Human Rights Ordinance, PA State Employee Antidiscrimination Proclamation

Organizations: PA Rural Gay Caucus, PA Governor's Council for Sexual Minorities, Gay League of Lebanon (GLL), Gay Era, Gay Switchboard of Harrisburg (GSH), Gay Switchboard of Lancaster, Gays United Lancaster (GUL), Humans Relations Commission, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), Governor's Gay Task Force, Gay Coordinating Society of Berks County, Reading (GCS Berks)

View Item: Gay Era (Lancaster, PA) - March 1976

Date: May 1976

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Notable news in this issues:

• "Wheatland Zapped" (p. 4)
• "Rural Caucus Report" (p. 5)
• "State College [PA]" (p. 5)
• "Reading [PA]" (p. 5)
• "A Personal Expression of Gay Oppression from Lancaster, PA" (p. 12)
• "Northumberland [PA]" (p. 13)

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns Periodicals

Topics: PA Senate Bill 743, PA House Bill 2220, Human Rights Ordinance

Organizations: Gay Era, PA Governor's Council for Sexual Minorities, Homophiles of Penn State (HOPS), Gay Education Committee, PA Rural Gay Caucus, Susquehanna Valley Gays United (SVGU), Gay Switchboard of Harrisburg (GSH), Gay Switchboard of Lancaster, Gays and Lesbians of Lebanon (GLL), Gays United Lancaster (GUL), Northeastern PA Gay Alliance (NEPGA), Gay Coordinating Society of Berks County, Reading (GCS Berks)

View Item: Gay Era (Lancaster, PA) - May 1976

Date: February 1975

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA. Notable news in this issues:

• Gay Health Column (p.5)
• After a Year of Activism (p.6)
• Rural Caucus Meeting (p.7)
• Philadelphia Bill Defeated (p.7)
• Phila. Gay News Begins Publishing (p.7)
• GUL Holds Election of Officers (p.8)
• GUL Co-Sponsors Phila. Conference (p.8)
• Date Set For Gay Lobby Day (p.8)
• Dyke Cooper Comes to Town (p.9)
• Of Interest to Gay Women (W.O.W.) (p.9)
• Plant-Nite at Marietta Avenue (p.19)
• State Police Investigating Blackmail Racket (p.20)
• New Peer Counseling Program Begins (p.20)
• Constructing Gay Pride or Bari's Five Steps to Sainthood (p.23)

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns Periodicals

Topics: Human Rights Ordinance, Feminism

Organizations: Gay Switchboard of Lancaster, Gay Switchboard of Harrisburg (GSH), Gays United Lancaster (GUL), PA Rural Gay Caucus, Dignity/Central PA, Gay Coordinating Society of Berks County, Reading (GCS Berks), Women Oriented Women (WOW), Gay Era, Peer Counseling Program, Governor's Gay Task Force, Lesbian Discussion Group (Lancaster), Gay Community Services of Harrisburg

View Item: Gay Era (Lancaster, PA) - February 1975

Date: May 13, 1976

PA Rural Cay Caucus press release disucssing the formation of a permanenet legislative committee, with it's first focus on lobbying for the repeal of Sodomy Statutes.

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns

Topics: Sodomy Laws

Organizations: PA Rural Gay Caucus, PA Governor's Council for Sexual Minorities

View Item: PA Rural Gay Caucus, Press Release - May 13, 1976

Date: August 19, 1978

In these Meeting Minutes, motion to dissovle the PA Rural Gay Caucus as a formal organization is passed. Agenda concerns next steps of group. 

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns

Topics: Human Rights Ordinance

Organizations: Gay Support Network, Gay Switchboard of Harrisburg (GSH), National Gay Task Force (NGTF)

View Item: PA Rural Gay Caucus, Meeting Minutes - August 19, 1978

Date: November 6, 1976

As described in the by-laws, "The Pennsylvania Rural Gay Caucus is an association of interested individuals and groups, formed with the objective of promulgating the concerns and freedoms of gay people and all sexual minorities. This goal is to be achieved through and exchange of information, cooperation with other interested individuals and groups, action on the part of the association, encouragement of action and representation on the part of individuals and groups, and the sharing of resources."

The bylaws include information on membership, general meetings, officers, elections, committees, the mailing list, public relations, emergencies, and how to deal with resolutions to amend the bylaws themselves

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns

Topics:

Organizations: PA Rural Gay Caucus

View Item: PA Rural Gay Caucus, By-Laws - November 6, 1976

Date: April 1983

Created by Lorraine Kujawa, Cindy Mitzel, Mary Nancarrow, and several others in 1983, the Lavender Letter Newsletter was a calendar of events for, by, and about lesbian women to create community in the Central Pennsylvania area. The newsletter was distributed monthly until the mid-2000s.

Collection: LGBT-009 - Lavender Letter

Topics:

Organizations:

View Item: Lavender Letter (Harrisburg, PA) - April 1983

Date: April 1976

The Gay Era was a newspaper that reported news of interest from around the United States, with a specific focus on the news surrounding the gay community in Central PA, and provided a central forum for gay communities that were spread out across Central PA.

This issue was labeled incorrectly, and should be April 1976. Noteworthy news in this issue: 

• "Supreme Court Says 'Nay' on Gay" (p. 1)
• "Rural Caucus Report" (p. 5)
• "Governor's Council on Sexual Minorities" (p. 8)
• "Gay Education Day" (p. 12)

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns Periodicals

Topics: Human Rights Ordinance, PA House Bill 2220

Organizations: Gay Era, PA Rural Gay Caucus, PA Governor's Council for Sexual Minorities

View Item: Gay Era (Lancaster, PA) - April 1976

Date: Summer 1979

Calendar of events hosted by Dignity/Central PA during the summer of 1979.

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns

Topics:

Organizations: Dignity/Central PA

View Item: Summer with Dignity/Central PA, 1979

Date: circa 1976

Brochure explaining Dignity/Central PA's mission. Dignity is:
- a forum for human concerns
- a seeking for greater self
- knowledge and wisdom
- an affirmation of one's sexual orientation in faith
- personal ministry

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns

Topics:

Organizations: Dignity/Central PA

View Item: Dignity/Central PA, Brochure - circa 1976

Date: April 29, 2015

Joy (Ufema) Counsel was raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania. After completing high school, Joy began studies to become a nurse at the Altoona Hospital, and later completed a nursing program at Harrisburg Area Community College. Joy worked in numerous hospitals and medical facilities in New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Throughout her career as a nurse, Joy developed an affinity for caring for patients who were terminally ill. Her work in the area of death and dying received considerable media attention.

As a result, she was interviewed on 60 Minutes, a TV movie titled A Matter of Life and Death (1981) was made about her work, she authored numerous publications, and she participated in many speaking engagements across the country. In her interview, Joy discusses her work and experiences during the height of her recognition. She goes on to discuss the AIDS hospice she operated in York, Pennsylvania — elaborating on some of her most memorable patients and her experiences running a non-profit. Joy talks about her family’s reaction to her homosexuality, and her experiences as a lesbian in Central Pennsylvania. In the interview Joy goes on to discuss both challenges and the progress she sees as being significant to the LGBT community. Finally, Joy discusses the role of spirituality in her life.

Collection: LGBT Oral History

Topics: HIV/AIDs

Organizations: York Hospice House (York, PA)

View Item: Transcription of LGBT Oral History 116: Joy (Ufema) Counsel

Date: 1976

Photograph of members of PA Rural Gay Caucus with their banner at the 1976 Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade. Identified people from left to right: Richard Hoffman (with GSC Berks flag), Joe Burns, Jerry Brennan, and Sam Deetz. Photograph by Bari Lee Weaver.

Collection: LGBT-011 - Deetz

Topics:

Organizations: PA Rural Gay Caucus, Gay Coordinating Society of Berks County, Reading (GCS Berks)

View Item:

Date: 1988

Trophy won by the Harrisburg Hustlers volleyball team in 1988. Plaque on the trophy reads "Charm City Invitational 3rd Place 1988."

Collection: LGBT-010 - Wilson

Topics:

Organizations: Harrisburg Hustlers Volleyball Team

View Item:

Date: March 1977

Keystone is an educational and communication feature of Dignity/Central PA Inc. Noteworthy articles in this issue:

• "Treasurer's Report" (p. 2)
• "Workshop"...Coming Out! (p. 5)
• "Notes from the President" (p. 5)
• "Appeal to Members" (p. 6)

Collection: LGBT-001 - Burns

Topics: Dignity/Central PA, Coming Out

Organizations: Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), Friend's Meeting House, Dignity/Central PA

View Item: Keystone (Dignity/Central PA) - March 1977