Building a Queer Right to Read: The ALA’s Gay Task Force in the 1970s and ‘80s

• In Event: Identity, Resistance, and Movement-Building

Abstract

The literature we allow to be printed, distributed, and read speaks, in part, to what we view as acceptable to be in American society. Until the late 1960s, gay themes in literature posed a danger. They were difficult to get published and seen. If published, such stories faced the serious risk of obscenity prosecutions and censorship threats. By 1970, obscenity in literature was largely ended but that did not translate into a sudden change in the availability of queer stories because various institutional barriers still existed. Founded in 1969, the Task Force for Gay Liberation work within the American Library Association to alter this reality. This group sought to overcome the various non-legal barriers facing gay and lesbian literature and stories. Through a variety of tactics, the Task Force brought awareness to modern gay and lesbian nonfiction, activated gay librarians in providing the material, and encouraged the shift in young adult literature to represent more honest gay and lesbian themes. The Task Force sought to make the right to read a reality for gay people by reminding libraries that they had a duty to carry the material for patrons.

Author

• Richard Price, Weber State University