Richard Schlegel with large group of men in front of building - circa 1964

Date
circa 1964

Richard Schlegel (front, fourth from the left) with large group of men in front of building. Possibly PA Department of Highway staff.

General Subjects
Year
Time Period
Format
Origin
Gift of Robert ''Bob'' Deibler
Collection
Location
LGBT-081 Robert ''Bob'' Deibler Collection

Richard Schlegel at event for PA Department of Highways - circa 1964

Date
circa 1964

PA Department of Highways event. Richard Schlegel (back left), Department of Highways Deputy Secretary Wilbur Webb (center), Secretary Henry Harral (right of Webb), and Joe Micco (far right).

General Subjects
Year
Time Period
Format
Origin
Gift of Robert ''Bob'' Deibler
Collection
Location
LGBT-081 Robert ''Bob'' Deibler Collection

Richard Schlegel at the Pennsylvania Highway Information Association dinner - March 11, 1964

Date
March 11, 1964

Pennsylvania Highway Information Association dinner at the Scranton Holiday Inn. Left to right: Ken Larson, James E. Krick, Max Frey, and Richard Schlegel, unidentified man.

General Subjects
Year
Time Period
Format
Origin
Gift of Robert ''Bob'' Deibler
Collection
Location
LGBT-081 Robert ''Bob'' Deibler Collection

Richard Schlegel at the Bucknell University Seminar for Highway Executives - August 1963

Date
August 1963

Bucknell University seminar for highway executives, left to right: Ken Larson, Dr. George McManmon (standing), James Mifflin, and Richard Schlegel.

General Subjects
Year
Time Period
Format
Origin
Gift of Robert ''Bob'' Deibler
Collection
Location
LGBT-081 Robert ''Bob'' Deibler Collection

Civils Rights March in Harrisburg, PA - circa 1977

Date
circa 1977

Civil Rights March in Harrisburg, PA, late 1970s. Photo by Bari Weaver.

Year
Time Period
Format
Origin
Gift of Sam Edmiston
Collection
Location
LGBT-041 Sam Edmiston Collection

Lehigh Valley Homophile Organization (Le-Hi-Ho) Records - 1960s to 1980s

Date
1960s to 1980s

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.

General Subjects
Origin
Gift of Joseph W. Burns and the Lehigh Valley LGBT Community Archive
Collection
Location
LGBT-001 Joseph W. Burns 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

LGBT History Project: LGBT-081 Robert ''Bob'' Deibler Collection

Number of Pages
5
Date
1961-2007

Robert “Bob” Deibler was born on January 20, 1940 in upper Paxton Township in Dauphin County, PA. He graduated from Millersburg Area High School and went on to attend Bloomsburg University with majors in social science and English, and later became a teacher. Deibler was an active member in two men’s clubs, the Pennsmen and the Satyr Men. After meeting his long-term partner, Ronn Fink, in 1985 and retiring from teaching in 1991, Deibler decided to move to Harrisburg, PA. While in Harrisburg, Deibler supported Fink in the running of the Bare Wall, a gift shop and video rental store and local landmark for the gay community in Harrisburg.

Within this collection, the papers of Richard Schlegel are also included. Deibler and Schlegel where distant family relatives, with their mothers being first cousins. Deibler kept Schlegel’s records for future reference.

Year
Origin
Gift of Robert ''Bob'' Deibler
Collection
Location
LGBT-081 Robert ''Bob'' Deibler Collection

LGBT History Project: LGBT-041 Sam Edmiston Collection

Number of Pages
4
Date
1961-2015

Sam Edmiston was born on July 17, 1945 in Middleburg, PA. In the April of 1963, Edmiston enrolled in the US Navy, and three weeks after his graduation, went to the Keel United States Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois for recruitment training. While in the US Navy, Edmiston was a dispersing clerk until he was dishonorably discharged for being gay in 1966. Edmiston fought to change the discharge, and his papers were later changed to a “general discharge under general conditions.”

After coming home from the Navy, Edmiston worked various jobs until he retired from working for seven years for personal health reasons. After the seven years, Edmiston found a job with the Social Security Administration through Administrative Careers of America. He went on to work for the Social Security Administration for the next 10 years until he finally retired permanently.

Throughout and after college Edmiston was active in the pursuit of gay rights. He started the Susquehanna Valley Gays United in 1976 with friend Sam Deetz, was the secretary for the PA Rural Gay Caucus, contributed to the Lancaster Gay Era Newspaper, and was part of Dignity/Central PA.

People
Year
Origin
Gift of Sam Edmiston
Collection
Location
LGBT-041 Sam Edmiston Collection