History on the (phone) line

Like just about every important event in LGBT history, the inspirational story of the White House’s first meeting with openly lesbian and gay leaders in 1977 wasn’t taught in my history classes. Though my women’s studies courses touched on LGBT history, it was never the main focus.

If it had been, I would have had more background about that historic White House meeting. It was organized in 1977 by the (then) co-chairs of the Task Force, Bruce Voeller and Jean O’Leary. Bruce and Jean met with Midge Costanza, assistant to President Jimmy Carter, and more than a dozen leaders in the lesbian and gay movement to talk about gay and lesbian rights. Before this meeting, no administration had ever reached out to our community.

But maybe there is one good thing that comes from LGBT history’s exclusion from textbooks or history classrooms — instead of just reading about our history in academic language, we feel it. We participate in it, and we hear oral histories right from the source, from the history-makers who were there. People like me get our history lessons anywhere we can, whether it’s through documentaries, conversations with elders at LGBT community centers, or reading between the lines in “mainstream” history books.

That’s why I loved listening in on the Task Force’s commemorative audio press conference yesterday. The free telephone conference call celebrated the 30th anniversary of this White House meeting and was open to the public as well as media.

It was one of our community’s great teaching moments. I, along with other listeners, heard eight of the meeting’s participants tell their own histories, give their opinions on the movement, and catch up with each other after 30 years. You can listen here.

Those on the call, in addition to Midge Costanza and the Task Force’s executive director, Matt Foreman, included Pokey Anderson (co-founder of the Gay/Lesbian Political Caucus), Charlotte Bunch (founder and executive director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership), Frank Kameny (Task Force co-founder), Elaine Noble (the first openly gay person elected at the state level), Bishop Troy Perry (founder of Metropolitan Community Churches), George Raya (an accomplished lobbyist in the ’70s) and Marilyn Haft, who worked with Midge at the White House.

Once I got over being starstruck about being on a conference call with Charlotte Bunch (hey, I was a women’s studies major, we do things like go gaga over practical models for feminist theory), I was able to sit and listen to some of the movement’s most influential leaders speak candidly about the White House meeting, international politics, LGBT people of faith and the future of the LGBT community.

The audio press conference was richer than any textbook recounting of the White House meeting could have been. We got personal details. Midge told us that when speaking with President Carter about the meeting’s coordinators, Carter asked Midge, “Does she (Jean O’Leary) have to use her title [co-chair of the National Gay Task Force]?” Midge took one look at the president and replied, “Do you have to use yours?” Carter said he “got the point” and let Midge continue on planning the meeting. Many Americans “got the point,” too. The meeting generated more mail than any other meeting in the Carter administration.

When our leaders walked into the White House that day, they opened the doors for gay men and lesbians in a meaningful way. Marilyn said the meeting gave her and Midge ammunition: other people and agencies decided that if the White House was taking lesbian and gay issues seriously, then they ought to as well. Midge told us that one of the most important things this meeting accomplished was the inclusion of sexual orientation in the Civil Rights Commission’s list of protections.

Bishop Troy Perry described the meeting as “making all the difference in the world” for our community. Meeting members detailed more immediate effects: they saw less discrimination in HUD housing for gay men and lesbians, and gay rights nonprofit organizations soon stopped being denied tax-exempt status simply for being gay.

Though these leaders were able to see the contributions they made, they also acknowledged that we have a way to go. In fact, they’re all still actively working toward equality: After the press conference Frank Kameny went directly to a rally to protest “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Leadership like this, spanning more than three decades, is inspiring.

I know this important LGBT history story will continue to be told through the participants themselves and all whom they’ve touched. And one day, it will be told in American history classrooms.

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