LGBT History Project: LGBT-114 Richard L. Schlegel Collection

Number of Pages
4
Date
1949-2006
Richard Lamar Schlegel was born in 1927 in Berrysburg, PA, a small borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. In 1949, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he pursued a master’s degree and later took a job in the federal government. His career ended in 1961 when he was fired for “immoral and indecent conduct” after being followed by secret investigators who investigated his personal life. Schlegel appealed his case, Schlegel vs. the United States, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court but was refused a hearing. He then returned to Pennsylvania where he worked for the Department of Highways and started a small chapter of the Janus Society in Harrisburg. This is believed to be the first gay organization created in central Pennsylvania.
Year
Origin
Gift of Robert ''Bob'' Deibler
Collection
Location
LGBT-114 Richard L. Schlegel Collection

LGBT History Project: LGBT-015 John R. Barns Collection

Number of Pages
9
Date
1946, 1970 - 2017

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.

Topics
Year
Origin
Gift of John R. Barns
Collection
Location
LGBT-015 John R. Barns Collection

LGBT History Project: LGBT-068 Anonymous Collection

Number of Pages
2
Date
1940 - 2017

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.

Year
Origin
Gift of Anonymous
Location
LGBT-068 Anonymous Collection