The Lambda Literary Foundation regrets the loss of the following pioneers in LGBT literature and culture.

Allan Berube (1946-2007)

By Wayne Hoffman

Gay historian Allan Berube, award-winning author of Coming Out Under Fire, died on December 11, 2007. He was 61.

His death was due to sudden complications following the discovery of two stomach ulcers, according to his close friend Jonathan Ned Katz, a fellow gay historian.

Berube was, for decades, an independent historian and community activist. He first came to progressive political activism in opposition to the Vietnam war, working with the American Friends Service Committee in Boston in the late 1960s, after dropping out of the University of Chicago. After coming out in 1969, he joined a "gay liberation collective household," and later moved to San Francisco to join a gay commune for craftspeople. He remained in San Francisco for many years, and was one of the founders of the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project in 1978. His slide shows about women who dressed and passed as men -- and married other women -- were welcomed by enthusiastic audiences around the country.

Berube is best remembered for his groundbreaking work of gay history,
published in 1990: Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War II. The Lambda Literary Award-winning book, which was later adapted by Arthur Dong into a Peabody Award-winning documentary, was often cited in Senate hearings on the military's anti-gay policies in 1993.

Martin Duberman, distinguished professor of history emeritus at the
City University of New York, called Berube's book "superb ... not
only in terms of his prose style, which was absolutely lucid and even
elegant, but also in terms of the very fine-spun analysis. Allan was
not one to create shallow generalizations about either a given
individual or a series of events. He was utterly meticulous and
utterly careful. No one will ever, I think, have to redo the book on
World War II, and you can almost never say that about a historian or
a given piece of historical research."

In 1996, Berube received a "genius grant" from the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for his work.

For the past decade, while living in New York City and the Catskills,
Berube had been working on a history of queer working-class men in
the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union in the 1930s and '40s, a project
for which he received a Rockefeller Residency Fellowship in the
Humanities from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY.

Berube traveled the country presenting slide shows about his current
research, and lectured on gay and lesbian history at Stanford
University and the University of California, Santa Cruz. He wrote
stories for numerous publications, including Mother Jones, Gay
Community News, The Advocate, The Washington Blade, Out/Look, and the Body Politic. He also published articles in several anthologies,
including White Trash (which included a rare personal essay in which
he recounted his childhood in a trailer park in Bayonne, N.J.) and
Policing Public Sex, in which he detailed the history of gay bathhouses.

"Allan took great pride in his role as a community historian," said
John D'Emilio, professor of history at the University of Illinois at
Chicago and author of several books on gay history. "He loved the
excitement that his talks and slide shows generated in an audience,
and he loved that he, a college dropout, had written a book that made
a difference in the world. He was an inspiration to everyone who knew
him, as sweet and kind and genuinely moral a human being as anyone
could hope to meet."

For the past several years, Berube lived in Liberty, N.Y., in the
Catskills. There, he owned a bed & breakfast, and operated
Intelligent Design, a store selling mid-century modern collectibles.
Berube's partner, John Nelson, said, "Allan just loved it when people
walked into the Liberty store, looked around, and were happy."

Berube was twice elected a trustee of the village of Liberty.

"Allan was extremely proud of helping to preserve Liberty's historic
character," said Katz. "Allan initiated the successful nomination of
Liberty's whole Main Street as a historic district, saved from
demolition a major building with a classic 1950s façade, and bought
and renovated the Shelburne Playhouse, one of the last remaining
performance halls that were once part of the area's many hotels."

In addition to Nelson, Berube is also survived by his mother and
three sisters.

For further comment, you can contact the following people:

Martin Duberman: martinduberman@aol.com
John D'Emilio: demilioj@uic.edu
Jonathan Ned Katz: jnk123@mac.com
Wayne Hoffman: waynewriter@aol.com

Jane Rule (1931-2007)

Writer, teacher, cultural nationalist and lesbian role model, Jane Rule died last night of complications from liver cancer at her home on Galiano Island, British Columbia. She was 76.

The author of a dozen books, including the novels Desert of the Heart, This is not for You and Memory Board, and the non-fiction essays Lesbian Images, Ms. Rule brought the idea of women loving women into the quotidian world both in her personal life, which was lived openly for nearly 50 years with her partner Helen Sonthoff, and in her writing.

She explored the conflict between desire and convention and the constriction that fear can extol on intimacy, joyfulness and freedom. Her fiction falls into the category of social realism, but it was always driven by character rather than polemics. Typically an ensemble of homosexual and heterosexual characters interact, often communally, to represent the position of the artist in society or to confront bureaucratic oppression of difference.

As she herself grew older, Ms. Rule became more concerned in her writing about aging and the social webs that single women form as an emotional and physical counterpoint to traditional family networks.

Read more from the Toronto Globe & Mail.

Another appreciation in Xtra, Canada's lgbt magazine.

Barbara Gittings (1932-2007)

Gay rights pioneer Barbara Gittings has died at the age of 74 from a lengthy and brave battle with breast cancer, Philadelphia Gay News publisher and friend Mark Segal announced today.

"She will live forever in our hearts and our memory. In the history of LGBT people, she will stand forever among our giants," observed Katherine V. Forrest, president of the Lambda Literary Foundation.
 
Gittings first came to the public spotlight in 1965 when she and a handful of gay men and lesbians held demonstrations outside the White House and Independence Hall seeking equal rights for homosexuals. These were the first such demonstrations in American history and began an era of gays coming out of the closet. Gitting's involvement in the gay rights movement started in the late 1950s when she helped organize the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (D.O.B.). It was there she met her life partner Kay Lahusen, who has been by her side for 46 years.

Gittings other accomplishments include head of the American Library Association's Gay Task Force. In 2003 The American Library Association presented Gittings with its highest honor, a lifetime
membership. She was an active cornerstone in the campaign that led to the American Psychiatric Association dropping its categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973. In 2005, she was recognized by the Publishing Triangle with its Leadership Award.

Gittings was an early community journalist. She edited the D.O.B.
publication The Ladder from 1963-66 and worked with Lahusen on her 1973 book The Gay Crusaders.

Gittings continued to make appearances, even accepting an award from the American Psychiatric Association this past fall, but ill health finally led her and Lahausen to an Assisted Living Facility in Kennet Square, PA, where she went into a coma Sunday morning, February 18th and passed away with Kay at her side at 7:25 p.m. later that evening.

Gittings and Lahusen lived their latter years in Philadelphia and
Wilmington, Delaware. Along with Lahusen, Gittings is survived by her sister Eleanor Gittings Taylor of San Diego, California.

Lahusen asks that donations be made in Barbara's memory to Lambda Legal Defense Fund.

Betty Berzon (1928-2006)

Pioneer gay rights activist, psychotherapist, and writer, Betty Berzon
died peacefully in her sleep on January 24, 2006. She was 78.

Her tireless activism shaped the launch of numerous significant
organizations that continue to impact and promote the well-being of the lesbian and gay community. She was architect and founder of Southern California Women for Understanding, as well as co-founder of California Gay Academic Union. She was a founding board chair of Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services and board member of numerous gay and lesbian advocacy organizations, including the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, where she developed a gay and lesbian peer counselor training program; Whitman-Radclyffe Foundation where she created the personal growth program that resulted in the book, Positively Gay (19; National Gay Rights Advocates, the first public interest law firm to focus on gay rights, and the Community Guild, a groundbreaking effort to assist low-income gay and lesbian seniors. She was also producer of Gaythink, the first national conference to bring together gay and lesbian faculty and students.

In 1971, during a UCLA conference called "The Homosexual in America," Berzon became the first psychotherapist in the country to publicly declare herself as a gay mental health professional. Today, Division 44 of the American Psychological Association has more than 1500 members.

An expert in small group process, Berzon worked with renowned
researcher Evelyn Hooker to develop a series of encounter groups for gays and lesbians, called the Quest for Love. Later, she developed a series for Bell and Howell called The Encountertapes, a growth program for leaderless groups, which led to her first edited book, Encounter Groups: First Facts.

Berzon practiced psychotherapy with groups and couples for the last
twenty-five years of her life, during which time she also wrote four more books, including the perennial best-selling Permanent Partners: Building Gay and Lesbian Relationships that Last (1988); The Intimacy Dance: A Guide to Long-Term Success in Gay and Lesbian Relationships (1996); Setting Them Straight : You CAN Do Something About Bigotry and Homophobia in Your Life (1996); and Surviving Madness: A Therapist's Own Story, which won the Lambda Literary Award for best autobiography in 2003.

Berzon is survived by her life partner of thirty-three years, Teresa
DeCrescenzo. Also survived by her sister, Dr. Stephanie Miller of Lancaster Ohio; stepmother, Trude Berzon of Des Moines Iowa and North Palm Beach, Florida; stepsister Barbara Kaplan of North Palm Beach, Florida; cousins Sidney, Shirley, Jerry, Sandy, Mary, Dan, and Abbe Wool; and eight nieces and nephews.

Funeral services and interment will be held at Pierce Brothers Westwood
Memorial Park, 1218 Glendon Avenue, on Friday, January 27 at 11:00 a.m. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Omni Hotel, 251 South Olive Street, on Sunday, February 26, at 5:00 p.m.

Teresa DeCrescenzo has requested that in lieu of flowers or other
tributes, donations be made in Betty's honor to the following organizations:

Gay and Lesbian Adolescent Social Services 650 North Robertson Blvd. West Hollywood, CA, 90069

Lambda Literary Foundation
P.O. Box 1957
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY, 10113

Anyda Marchant (1911-2006)

Anyda Marchant, 94, a retired attorney, novelist and publisher died
January 11, 2006, at home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Ms. Marchant was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, moving with her family to Washington, DC, at age six. After earning her undergraduate degree and, in 1933, her law degree from what is now George Washington University, she was admitted to practice in DC and Virginia, before the U.S. Court of Claims and the U.S. Supreme Court.

She was one of the first female attorneys with the law firm now known
as Covington and Burling. She served briefly in private practice and with the U.S. Commerce Dept. before moving to the legal department of the World Bank where she worked for 18 years until her 1972 retirement.

In 1972 Marchant and her life partner Muriel Crawford created the Naiad Press with Barbara Grier and Donna McBride. The first novel published by Naiad was Marchant's The Latecomer, written under the pen name Sarah Aldridge. In 1974, Naiad was formally incorporated, proceeding to publish eleven Sarah Aldridge novels, as well as a wide selection of other feminist and lesbian writers, including Jane Rule, Isabel Miller, Ann Bannon, and Sarah Schulman, among many others. Marchant served as Naiad's president from its inception until the mid 1990's.

In 1995 Marchant and Crawford founded their own publishing company, A&M Books of Rehoboth Beach. A&M published the last three Sarah Aldridge novels (the latest in 2003), along with the book As I Lay Frying - a Rehoboth Beach Memoir by author Fay Jacobs. Passionate about supporting feminist writers, Marchant continued her publishing and mentoring activities until very recently, highlighted by the October 2005 release of the novel Celebrating Hotchclaw by feminist literary icon Ann Allen Shockley.

Marchant is survived by Crawford, her partner of 57 years, as well as a
large circle of loving friends. A memorial service was held Saturday, January 21, and in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Marchant's name to CAMP Rehoboth, Compassionate Care Hospice, or All Saints Episcopal Church Building Fund (all located within Rehoboth Beach, Delaware).