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Gender and Sexuality

This collection features materials from a number of sources focusing on struggles revolving around gender and sexuality. These struggles are not separate from larger struggles for liberation but specifically incorporate unique voices and perspectives.

Subcollections

  • Connexions
    Connexions is the collective product of feminists of diverse nationalities and political perspectives committed to contributing to an international women\'s movement.
  • Feminist and Lesbian Politics: Monographs-Periodicals-Articles
    This collection contains materials focusing on radical feminist and lesbian politics. While diverse in medium and subject matter, this collection contextualizes women’s liberation highlighting issues of class, race, sexuality and imperialism.
  • Materials shot and collected in the making of The Forest for the Trees
    Raw materials from the documentary "The Forest for the Trees" which details the amazing story of the fight to clear Earth First! activist Judi Bari's name after her car was bombed and she was arrested as a terrorist.
  • Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Support Women Prisoners
    Out of Control (OOC) was a self-supporting committee formed in 1987 to organize resistance to the Lexington Control Unit for women.
  • Prisons - Women
    This collection contains materials relating to the specific conditions, challenges and struggles facing women in prison. Topics are varied but materials include conference papers, informational materials, legal perspectives and audio recordings.
  • Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
    This collection contains grassroots radio programming produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms. This programming primarily occurred during the 1980s and 1990s.
  • Sterilization
    This collection contains materials focusing on the sterilization of women and efforts to resist this practice.
  • Violence Against Women
    This collection contains materials focusing on violence against women. Specific topics covered include women who fight back against their abusers, rape, pornography, sexism and self-defense.
  • Women Against Imperialism
    Women Against Imperialism was a grassroots, feminist, anti-imperialist solidarity organization formed in San Francisco in 1981. Women Against Imperialism’s work primarily consisted of direct action organizing and political education activities.

Documents

Race, Class and Gender Workshop Race, Class and Gender Workshop
Call Number: JG/ 105Format: CassetteProgram: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy InstituteCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
This is a recording is of a workshop and moderated discussion about the intersections of class, race, and gender in LGBT movements. The workshop is held at a 1993 conference sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. Several critiques on the direction that the mainstream LGBT movement is going in are made, including: The movement catering to the image of the affluent white gay male, problematic assumptions about and comparisons to the Civil Rights movement, the closet as a classist construction, and the lack of dialogue on the impact of economic policy. Other issues addressed are: gays in the military, strategies on dealing with the Right, and the spectacle of queerness in the media.
Les Chanteuses Africaines Les Chanteuses Africaines
Call Number: JG/ 106AFormat: Cass ACollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
Broadcasting from the Atlanta-based WFRG station, Alicia Banks hosts her weekly radio program "Les Chanteuses Africaines: The African Female Singers featuring the Musical & Literary Voices of Black Women". In this particular recording, the show at hand is part of a special marathon of gay and lesbian themed programming at WFRG. During the course of the show, Banks addresses the intersecting issues of race, homophobia and the AIDS crisis. She also critically examines contradictions of homophobia within racially oppressed communities, and dissects the notion of the need of a singular construct of closet and coming out. Included are clips of stand-up comedy from Lea Delaria, Whoopi Goldberg and Sam Kinison, There are also songs performed by and are about LGBT people. The songs “B.D. Woman Blues” by Lucille Bogen and “The Prove It To Me Blues” by Ma Rainey remain in good audio quality, while some of the other songs included are of a poorer recording quality.
A Defiant Heart: Focus on Sodomy A Defiant Heart: Focus on Sodomy
Date: 1/8/1990Call Number: JG/ 104Format: CassetteCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld Georgia state sodomy laws in the landmark case "Bowers vs. Hardwick". Recorded here is a mass demonstration against such laws. The demonstration takes place at the Georgia state capitol on the opening day of its 1990 state legislature. Groups represented ranged from the Aids Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the National Organization for Women (NOW) to religious groups to advocates for AIDS awareness, pro-choice, anti-racism, and anti-ableism. Speakers touched upon many subjects, from the importance of choice in and out of the bedroom, the danger of sodomy laws' silencing consequences in the face of the AIDS crisis to sodomy laws' place in the long-standing history of persecution in the U.S. and in the world. Many of the speeches featured are intended to rally the crowd and do not go into great depth.
"...And Ain't I A Woman?" "...And Ain't I A Woman?"
Date: 1/1/1977Call Number: Vin 004Format: VinylProducers: Paredon Records, New Harmony Sisterhood BandCollection: Programs produced by Judy Gerber and Laurie Simms
This album by the New Harmony Sisterhood Band contains folk songs centered on issues of women's liberation, gender normativity, and labor unions. The New Harmony Sisterhood Band formed in 1973 by a group of female students who wanted to re-imagine traditional folk songs and write songs with politically conscious, feminist messages. Includes extensive liner notes.