Biography of Barbara Gittings Out for Pride

"Barbara Gittings: Gay Pioneer," the first full-length biography of the woman who has been called the mother of the gay-rights movement, is available in time for Pride.

"Barbara Gittings just about leaps from the pages of Tracy Baim's celebratory biography of the gay rights movement's happiest warrior," said Eric Marcus, author of Making Gay History. "Determined, persistent, persuasive and wicked-smart, Barbara wielded her smile like a machete, demolishing all demagogues and fools who got in the way of what she knew to be true about herself and the rest of us. How lucky were we that she was born at a time when we so desperately needed her to help blaze our path to freedom."

The book is by journalist Tracy Baim, author of 11 books on LGBT history. Award-winning writer Lillian Faderman wrote the foreword for the book. It is available in both a full-color and B&W editions in print, and will be on Kindle in color July 15.

"Tracy Baim brings Gittings to life in this captivating and inspiring biography," said author and historian John D'Emilio. "Skillfully combining Gittings' own words with accounts of her activist campaigns, this biography makes clear how much Gittings accomplished. A committed activist for five decades, Barbara Gittings truly changed the world. The work of Gittings in the LGBT movement spanned from the late 1950s until her death in 2007. Her partner in life, Kay Lahusen, photographed many of the movement's biggest actions during the 1960s, and more than 270 photos accompany this biography, making it a historical photo album of the movement."

Gittings was active in a wide range of pre- and post-Stonewall groups, including the Daughters of Bilitis. She served as editor of DOB's newsletter, The Ladder. She worked with fellow gay pioneer Frank Kameny on many protests and legal cases fighting government discrimination.

Perhaps most importantly, Gittings was among the leaders of the push to change the American Psychiatric Association diagnosis of homosexuality as an illness, and she was among those pushing the American Library Association to be more inclusive of gays.

"As Baim shows, more than any lesbian leader of the 20th century, Gittings kept her eyes sharply focused on the prize of civil rights for gay people," writes Faderman.

"This first and deeply moving biography of Barbara Gittings, pioneer of lesbian political activism, dramatically evokes a past of open, outrageous anti-homosexual discrimination," said author Jonathan Ned Katz, co-director, OutHistory.org. "Today's radically different world was first imagined and then begun to be built by daring activists like Gittings."

"Tracy Baim has captured the life and legacy of the mother of gay liberation in America with this book. Barbara Gittings would have loved it. Another incredible book on our history," said Reverend Troy Perry.