2017

Colin Kreitzer was born in 1947 in Enola, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Wormleysburg, Pennsylvania with his parents and his younger sister. He attended West Chester College and moved to Harrisburg in 1977, where he began getting involved in the gay community through activism and social activities. In this interview Colin reviews his involvement in the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard of Harrisburg, Dignity, Metropolitan Community Church, and volleyball. He also talks about the stigma of growing up as a closeted gay man, the bullying he experienced in primary and secondary school, and how he came to accept his sexuality and come out when he was in college. He discusses his past relationships and the struggles that he has experienced trying to forge healthy, emotional connections with others. Colin is also involved in Alcoholics Anonymous, and explains the values he has gained from the organization and the changes in his own character and behavior.

David Klinepeter, father of the late Daniel Klinepeter, gives insight as a parent of a member of the LGBT community. He also speaks about his experience losing his son to AIDS and his advocacy with AIDS Memorial Quilt: The Names Project.

Mary Margaret Hart and Lynn Daniels are a married lesbian couple living in Central Pennsylvania. Lynn was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1931, while Mary was born in 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio. Throughout the interview, Mary and Lynn discuss their childhoods, how they met, and the difficulties of raising a family together in Central Pennsylvania during the 1980s. Mary, a therapist, had previously been married and had two children with her first husband, John, before meeting Lynn while completing graduate school. The couple discusses raising their daughters, Rachel and Sheila, at a time and place without other lesbian parents as role models. The two stayed active in the gay community, and they recount the differences they’ve observed growing up two decades apart, as well as what they’ve observed of their daughter Sheila’s experience, who is also gay. The couple married in 2014 after being together for 35 years.

Cassidy Frazee was born in 1957 in Cedar Lake, Indiana. Cassidy grew up in Cedar Lake with her younger sister, father and mother. They had a Catholic upbringing, but Cassidy explains she was no longer interested in religious affairs by the time she reached sixth grade, when her questions revolving around Catholicism angered the adults at her Sunday school. Growing up in rural Indiana in the 1960s and 1970s, there were not many positive representations of LGBT people. So, although Cassidy explains she had always felt that she was a girl, she did not learn of the term ‘transsexual’—the term used to describe transgender at the time—until reading one of her mother’s psychology books. After going through two marriages and securing a career as a computer programmer, Cassidy come out as a woman in 2015, after beginning to see a gender therapist in 2012. In this interview, Cassidy gives a timeline all the way through her transition and the experience of going through hormone replacement therapy (HRT); to explain the effect that estrogen has had on her as a person. Cassidy also shares personal, spiritual and emotional experiences that have time and time again confirmed her gender identity.

Melinda Eash, child psychologist and LBGT rights ally, discusses her upbringing near the New York Metropolitan Area and the influence of the church. As a young adult she attended Susquehanna University, where she made friends with a gay student whom she helped sequester in the girl’s dorm in secret as he was unsafe in the men’s dorm. After college, Eash worked with developmentally disabled adults, going on to get her Master’s degree and open her own practice working with youth as a certified psychologist. After encountering a gay patient, Eash realized she was under-educated in this area, and began teaching herself how to help LGBT youth. At this point she contacted and began going to a local LGBT youth group, becoming an integral ally and leader of Bi-GLYAH. The organization, later renamed Common Roads, expanded greatly in the following twenty years. In this interview, Eash describes the changes she’s seen in the realities for LGBT youth, the changes in the organization, and the work done by current and former members of the group.

Chris Dietz was born on April 6, 1975 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He lived in Carlisle shortly after he was born, before moving to Perry County with his parents and younger sister. There, he attended West Perry School District and participated in many extracurricular activities. From high school, Chris was accepted to Penn State and studied engineering until he graduated. In this interview, Chris shares his experience with coming to terms with his sexuality at 30 years old as a life-long member of the United Church of Christ Christian church, and in turn how it has influenced his parents’ perception of him. He also expands on his achievements both as a manufacturer and a community leader. Chris worked as a mechanical engineer for a printing press until 2009, and now is a project manager at Alfa Laval, a manufacturing company for heat exchangers. Chris was appointed to Millersburg Borough Council in 2006, and has been a part of local politics ever since. Chris ran for state representative in 2012. The interview concludes with Chris’ thoughts on social change in the future for LGBT rights and transgender awareness.

Tammy del Sol was born in 1963. In this oral history, she discusses her college experience at several institutions, playing racquetball, her father’s (now her own) dental practice, her close-knit family, her artistic side, her relationships with different girlfriends, and her continuing friendship with her ex Jen. Tammy also talks about her relationship with their three children who were conceived through several different sperm donors, all of whom were friends of the couple.  Tammy discusses the importance of the extended LGBT family that includes friendship and relationships with exes and how this network has helped her and her former partner raise their children. Tammy identifies as a “New Ager,” someone who enjoys many aspects of different religions, but who primarily is drawn to spiritualism. Though she has run a dental practice for 22 years, she would like to pursue other business ventures after the next five or six years, which may include screenwriting. Tammy also hopes that her business will become a “home” for people in the LGBT community who otherwise would not find a place where they could feel safe. The interview also touches on current politics and the future of social justice under the Trump administration.

This is a story circle with Barry Loveland, Richard Hause, and Steven Leshner discussing the life and work of Jerry Brennan. They begin with the discussion of Jerry’s childhood religion and his attendance of St. Bernard’s Seminary in Alabama. Barry, Richard, and Steven also discuss Jerry’s charitable works, including being a founding member of Gay Community Services, Gay Switchboard, and finally in the local Dignity chapter. The men attempt to nail down Jerry’s personal life, from childhood to adulthood, although since he rarely talked about it they are only able to piece together clues from the time they knew him. They also discuss Jerry’s social activism and involvement in both the Black Civil Rights Movement and the local gay community. Barry, Richard, and Steven go off on a pleasant tangent discussing comedians and speakers that Jerry had come to Harrisburg. The men finish reminiscing about Jerry by discussing what little they knew about his love life.

Joe 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 where they stayed until age 18. Two weeks later, Christ was drafted into the Army and fast-tracked to work as a stool pigeon in a secret German Prisoner of War camp in Richmond, Virginia due to their fluency in German, Pennsylvania Dutch, and English. Following World War II, Christ got their degree in education from Moravian College, going on to teach English, German, and Social Studies while building and driving racecars, motorcycles, and flying planes as a hobby. In 1974, Christ went to Germany to teach American English on a Fulbright fellowship, where they met their second wife, 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 LGBT community.