1970-1979

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The proposed council was his instrument guaranteeing the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government.

This was the agenda and minutes for a September 1978 meeting. The meeting included:

• announcements
• an update on the Gay State-wide Support Network
• updates on Affirmative Action training
• training in the State Police Academy on sexual minorities issues
• disucssion about the Prison Rape Project
• discussion on how the council can support education on Gay Alcoholism

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The proposed council was his instrument guaranteeing the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government.

This was the agenda and minutes from the May 27, 1976 meeting. The opening of the meeting contained a program on Transsexuality, and was followed by Committee Reports and discussion.

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The proposed council was his instrument guaranteeing the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government.

This agenda was for the September 11, 1978 meeting.

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The proposed council was his instrument guaranteeing the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government.

This agenda was for the September 17, 1976 meeting.

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The proposed council was his instrument guaranteeing the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government.

This report gives a summary of the purpose and goals of the Advisory Committee on the Rights and Health Concerns of Sexual Minorities.

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The proposed council was his instrument guaranteeing the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government.

In this document, a Task Force for Special Minority Concerns is recommendied for creation within the Governor's Council for Sexual Minorities.

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The proposed council was his instrument guaranteeing the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government. This documents lists some accomplishments of the Governor's Council for Sexual Minorities.

Johnson and Maser met in 1975 through a mutual friend. As a couple, they saw how AIDS was affecting their community and became active in local AIDS Awareness organizations, the Lancaster AIDS Project, and the Betty Finney House, which helped raise awareness and support people with AIDS.

This collection contains newspaper clippings, which document coverage of issues related to LGBT rights and activism in the LNP (Lancaster, PA) newspaper in summer 2015; a program for the art exhibit “Men and Other Abstractions” created by Johnson; posters that address civil rights and the ban on military service for gays and lesbians; buttons that feature various advocacy efforts; and matchbooks from hotels, bars, clubs, and restaurants in Pennsylvania and cities across the United States.

This collection documents the earliest known organizational history of the LGBTQ+ community in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley region. Lehigh Valley Citizens Concerned for a Better Community (CCBC, later Lehigh Valley Citizens Concerned for the Gay Community, CCGC) was formed in 1977. This group was named in response to an anti-gay group called Citizens Organized for Decency, and was formed to advocate for the addition of the words “sexual and affectional preferences” to the protective clauses of the Human Relations Ordinance in Allentown, PA. Materials include newsletters, meeting minutes, press releases, and promotional materials.

The items in this collection are shared through a collaboration between the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive and the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project. For more information on Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archives, visit https://trexler.muhlenberg.edu/library/specialcollections/collections/#lgbt

Materials include newsletters, meeting minutes, press releases, and promotional materials. View the collection on the Internet Archive.

This collection documents the earliest known organizational history of the LGBTQ+ community in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley region. The Pennsylvania Lesbian and Gay Support Network (PALGSN) was established in 1978 after the first Pride Conference, and was a state-wide organization which worked for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Materials include newsletters, meeting minutes, press releases, and promotional materials.

The items in this collection are shared through a collaboration between the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive and the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project. For more information on Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archives, visit https://trexler.muhlenberg.edu/library/specialcollections/collections/#lgbt

Materials include newsletters, meeting minutes, press releases, and promotional materials. View the collection on the Internet Archive.

This collection contains a t-shirt from La Rose Rogue, an LGBTQ+ bar in Harrisburg, PA. La Rose Rogue was the final LGBTQ+ bar iteration at the 400 North 2nd Street location in Harrisburg, opened in 1978 by John Koch, and was open until 1990.

John Barns was born in Perry County, PA. He graduated from Greenwood High School in 1960 and then joined the Pennsylvania National Guard during the Vietnam War, where he was in the armored tank division. After discharging from the military, Barns worked for the State in the Department of Labor and Industry and The Department of Health. He was a state employee for 30 years. Barns was a member of Dignity/Central PA, a Roman Catholic based organization that was a place for LGBTQ+ community members of any religious background to be together in community; and a part of the Gay Switchboard of Harrisburg, a telephone service that gave information, referrals, and supportive counseling to members of the local LGBTQ+ community.

This collection contains 6 series: Newspaper and Magazine Clippings; Dignity/Central PA; Cards and Postcards; Montreal, Quebec, Canada LGBTQ+ Information; Miscellaneous; and Artifacts.

Joseph W. Burns started to donate these materials in 2013 as the first contribution of historical documents to the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project. These materials reflect his involvement in, and document, LGBTQ+ activism in Central PA.

This collection contains materials from 1968 – 2015, but the bulk of the materials focus on LGBTQ+ activism from 1970 – 1980. There are 14 Series which highlight LGBTQ+ activist organizations, legislation, publications, photographs, personal/miscellaneous items, media, and artifacts, as well as Subject Files regarding people, organizations, or issues related to LGBTQ+ activism. Materials include documents, photos, a cassette tape, and multiple artifacts.

These materials document several LGBTQ+ bars that operated in the Harrisburg, PA area, namely The Archives Nightclub and Restaurant (1983), La Rose Rouge (1978-1992), Neptune’s Lounge (1972), and the Shadows bar (1980-1984). These items take the form of bar memorabilia, photographs, and video recordings.

This collection also includes trophies, plaques, and buttons highlighting the Harrisburg Hustler’s volleyball team, which Larry Wilson sponsored from 1981-1987. In addition, it includes an anniversary pin from The Pennsmen Inc., an organization for LGBTQ+ individuals with an interest in the leather/rubber/fetish lifestyle and was founded in South Central PA in 1977, and a scrapbook featuring Pennsmen events.

The beginning pages of the Pennsman scrapbook also includes pictures of Benedict A. “Wesley” Trautwein, a drag performer known as Francis Parker. Wesley was a part of the The Jewel Box Revue, a troupe of drag performers who traveled around the country from 1939 to 1969, which made many stops in Pennsylvania. After departing the Revue, he moved back to Harrisburg and continued preforming at local bars and clubs, such as The Neptune Lounge.

This collection documents the earliest known organizational history of the LGBTQ+ community in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley region. The Lehigh Valley Homophile Organization ("Le-Hi-Ho") held its first meeting on June 22, 1969. The goal of the group was to provide social opportunities outside of the bar scene for members of the LGBT community in the Lehigh Valley. The society published monthly newsletters featuring the information relevant to the community, including social events and field trips, activist opportunities and reporting on the national and regional gay liberation movement, and eventually HIV and AIDS. Thanks in part to Le-Hi-Ho’s success and the establishment of other organizations to support the LGBTQ+ community, the organization faltered and disbanded by the early 1990s. The newsletter was continued as the “Lambda Valley Monthly” beginning in the fall of 1985.

The items in this collection are shared through a collaboration between the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive and the LGBT Center of Central PA History Project. For more information on Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archives, visit  https://archive.org/details/early-lehigh-valley-lgbt   

Materials include newsletters, meeting minutes, press releases, and promotional materials. View the collection on the Internet Archive.

Joseph F. Christ was born in 1927 with Klinefelter Syndrome and assigned male at birth. The seventh of eight children, Christ was placed into an orphanage during the Great Depression until the age 18. Two weeks later, Christ was drafted into the Army and fast-tracked to work in a secret German Prisoner of War camp in Richmond, Virginia due to fluency in German, Pennsylvania Dutch, and English. Following World War II, Christ got a degree in education from Moravian College, going on to teach English, German, and Social Studies.

In 1974, Christ went to Germany to teach American English on a Fulbright fellowship, and there was married a second time to, Liz, a Fulbright scholar who was in Germany teaching British English. While working there, Christ helped improve the English skills of a German cytogeneticist to allow her to participate in the World Health Organization, and it was through this connection that Christ discovered they have XXY chromosomes. Christ had occasionally started presenting as a woman before learning they were intersex following the end of their first marriage in 1973, but never formally came out, electing to present as masculine or feminine selectively. Christ expresses comfort in being able to present as either/or, while not particularly identifying with the LGBTQ+ community.

Christ passed away in 2018.

This collection contains an embosser for the PA Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorities. The council was an officially appointed advisory committee created by Governor Milton J. Shapp in 1976. Governor Shapp, by executive order, declared that all executive branch offices and services were to end discriminatory practices and policies against all LGBTQ+ employees, clients, and program of state services. The council was his instrument for the implementation of his decree throughout the Executive Branch of state government. Council committees consisted of knowledgeable LGBTQ+ activists appointed by Governor Shapp to work side-by-side with official state employees to monitor and rewrite government regulations and practices to reflect the executive order.

White matchbook from the Netpunes Lounge in Harrisburg, PA.

Red matchbook from La Rose Rouge in Harrisburg, PA

White matchbok from Club 1031 in Harrisburg, PA.

White and blue matchbooks from the Neptune's Lounge in Harrisburg, PA.

Wooden nickeles from the Neptune's Lounge in Harrisburg, PA. 

There materials were donated at the Lancaster PA Pride event in June 2013. The collection represents the contributions of Mark Stoner and Mary Merriman, and documents LGBTQ+ issues and activism in Lancaster County, PA.

Of particular interest in this collection is The Pink Triangle Coalition materials and the newspaper articles from the Lancaster New Era and Intelligencer Journal, two local newspapers in the area. The newspaper address the establishment of an MCC Church in Mountville, PA, debate over LGBTQ+ rights in the Elizabethtown school system, and controversies over an LGBTQ+ book display in the Lancaster County Public Library. There is also a run of The Lancaster Inqueery, housed in the periodical series.

Colin Kreitzer was born in 1947 in Enola, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Wormleysburg, PA with his parents and his younger sister. He attended West Chester College (now West Chester University) and moved to Harrisburg in 1977, where he began getting involved in the gay community through activism and social activities. Kreitzer was involved in the Gay and Switchboard of Harrisburg (GSH), later known as the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard of Harrisburg (GLSH), Dignity/Central PA, Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of the Spirit, and volleyball.

Samuel Deetz was born in Quakertown, PA on April 21, 1951 and was one of eight children. His father was a minister, so his family moved from place to place throughout his childhood, until they came back to Central PA where Deetz finished high school. While living at home after high school, Deetz started working as an accountant, which led him to continue a career in accounting.

Deetz became active in the LGBTQ+ community in his mid-twenties in the 1970s. He, with help from Mark Seagal, founded the Susquehanna Valley Gays United (SVGU) in the summer of 1975. He was a member of the PA Rural Gay Caucus from its inception in 1975 until 1978, where he was co-chair for the first Gay Lobby (Education) Day in March 1976 and became the convener of the Legislative Committee. He was invited to become a member of the PA Governor’s Council for Sexual Minorites in 1976, where he became a facilitator between the Rural Gay Caucus and the Council, as well as the Council and the PA State Police Department. He also was treasurer for the Pennsylvania for Social Justice Political Action Committee (PAC) from 1982 to 1985.

Deetz passed away in 2019.

This collection highlights Deetz’s activism in various LGBTQ+ groups in Central PA. Deetz was an accountant by trade which enabled him to hold treasurer positions in most of the organizations highlighted in this collection.