Origins & Early Life

Barbara Gittings (July 31, 1932 – February 18, 2007) was an American LGBTQ activist. She started the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in 1958, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people in the United States government, the largest employer of the country at the time. In the 1970s, Gittings was most involved in the American Library Association, especially its Task Force on Gay Liberation, in order to promote positive literature about homosexuality in libraries. She was a part of the movement to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness in the early 1970s.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

She was awarded an American Library Association Honorary Membership, and the ALA named an annual award for the best LGBTQ novel the Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award. GLAAD also named an activist award for her. Barbara Gittings was born to Elizabeth (née Brooks) Gittings and John Sterett Gittings Jr. in Vienna, Austria, where her father was serving as a United States diplomat...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

• Alvin Plantinga — Contemporary (Born in 1932) (1932): Leading American philosopher and theologian known for Reformed epistemology.
• Andrei Tarkovsky — Contemporary (Born in 1932) (1932): Master of metaphysical cinema, known for slow pacing and spiritual depth.
• Anouk Aimée — Contemporary (Born in 1932) (1932): Iconic French actress known for her captivating roles from the 1940s to 2010s.
• Albert Ellis — Contemporary (Died in 2007) (2007): Pioneering figure in psychotherapy, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
• Alfred Peet — Contemporary (Died in 2007) (2007): Dutch-American founder credited with starting the US specialty coffee revolution.
• André Gorz — Contemporary (Died in 2007) (2007): Austrian-French philosopher known for critiques of work and political ecology.
• Alan Parker — Shared historical date (07-31 · Died) (2020): Acclaimed English filmmaker known for genre versatility and numerous BAFTA and Golden Globe wins.
• Alessandro Algardi — Shared historical date (07-31 · Born) (1598): Master of High-Baroque Sculpture, renowned for his portrait busts in Rome.
• Alessandro Volta — Shared historical date (02-18 · Born) (1745): Pioneering Italian physicist, credited with the electric battery and electrochemistry.
• Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi — Shared historical date (02-18 · Died) (1851): Pioneering German mathematician known for elliptic functions and differential equations.
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