Before Stonewall and other important events for the LGBTQ+ community happened, life was very different for people who identified as a member of this community in Central PA. Hear about it directly from those who experienced it below.
Richard Schlegel at a desk in the PA Department of Highways, circa 1964. Courtesy of LGBT-081, DCA. (1)
RICHARD SCHLEGEL
“Where did I ever learn about homosexuality? You could hardly find it in any dictionary at that point. The only availability of any nude photos of any kind was in medical books.”
“I went to Penn State two years and I just knew that I had to get out of there, because after I had made this revelation to Summerfield, my roommate, and he blabbed around the fraternity and possibly elsewhere, the attitude changed. Because I have no reason to think that any of the other boys were gay.” (2)
“Where did I ever learn about homosexuality? You could hardly find it in any dictionary at that point. The only availability of any nude photos of any kind was in medical books.”
“I went to Penn State two years and I just knew that I had to get out of there, because after I had made this revelation to Summerfield, my roommate, and he blabbed around the fraternity and possibly elsewhere, the attitude changed. Because I have no reason to think that any of the other boys were gay.” (2)
Bari Weaver (left), Sam Deetz (middle), and Joe Burns (right), members of the PA Rural Gay Caucus, reunited at dinner circa Christmas 1988. Courtesy of LGBT-001, DCA. (4)
JOE BURNS
“Whenever I didn’t go to school, the next day I went down to the bookstore and bought all of the copies I could find on—on—on anything about to do with homosexual.”
“...there were no books that I could find in the college catalog, in the card catalog, that started with the word homosexual. There were no books. There were no books on gay, which was a new term to me. I didn’t know gay when I started, actually.” (3)
Mary Nancarrow at the First Community Recognition Banquet - circa 1992. Courtesy of LGBT-007, DCA. (5)
MARY NANCARROW
“It was a very difficult time to be gay, in the early ‘70s and thereafter. I—when anything—whenever anything is a big problem, in my mind, I read a lot, and so I was trying--I’m trying to read everything I could get my hands on.”
“So it was at a time of upheaval in my own life, and it kind of took over my whole life—about, you know, figuring out who I really was, what my identity was, and I—I determined that I was so much more comfortable with women and attracted to women, and despite everything that my counselor at Shippensburg was telling me at the time, you know, I knew how my heart was, and I knew who I was falling in love with, really, and I just said, “Well, this is the way I need to go, however uncharted.” (6)
“It was a very difficult time to be gay, in the early ‘70s and thereafter. I—when anything—whenever anything is a big problem, in my mind, I read a lot, and so I was trying--I’m trying to read everything I could get my hands on.”
“So it was at a time of upheaval in my own life, and it kind of took over my whole life—about, you know, figuring out who I really was, what my identity was, and I—I determined that I was so much more comfortable with women and attracted to women, and despite everything that my counselor at Shippensburg was telling me at the time, you know, I knew how my heart was, and I knew who I was falling in love with, really, and I just said, “Well, this is the way I need to go, however uncharted.” (6)
Rachel Levine, oral interview screenshot from 2017.
RACHEL LEVINE
“I, ya know, I fit in, I compartmentalized any gender issues that I might have…”
“As for many transgender individuals, when I hit puberty, then my adolescence, then had lots more thoughts and feelings. But now we’re talking about the late 60s early 70s and there was no context for it. Ya know, I had heard and read about Christine Jorgensen, that was probably the only public reference that I could find of someone being transgender. So I didn’t understand it, and I compartmentalized it.” (7)
“I, ya know, I fit in, I compartmentalized any gender issues that I might have…”
“As for many transgender individuals, when I hit puberty, then my adolescence, then had lots more thoughts and feelings. But now we’re talking about the late 60s early 70s and there was no context for it. Ya know, I had heard and read about Christine Jorgensen, that was probably the only public reference that I could find of someone being transgender. So I didn’t understand it, and I compartmentalized it.” (7)
Shaka Hudson, oral interview screenshot from 2015.
SHAKA HUDSON
“We both knew that we had some sexual gayness about ourselves, but we never talked about it, but we knew it was there. We both knew it was there. We just never talked about it. We wore masks instead.” (8)
Next, meet the people who built the foundation of activism to come.
Citations
- Richard Schlegel at a desk in the PA Department of Highways, circa 1964, photo, LGBT-081 Robert “Bob” Deibler Collection, LGBT History Project Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
- Richard Schlegel, interviewed by Marc Stein, 11-12 May 1993, oral history interview transcript, LGBT-081 Robert “Bob” Deibler Collection, LGBT History Project, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
- Joseph W. Burns, interviewed by Lonna Malmsheimer, 24 May 2013, LGBT Oral History 012A, LGBT History Project, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
- Joseph R. Burns, circa 1988. Courtesy of LGBT-001 Joseph W. Burns Collection, LGBT History Project, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
- Mary Nancarrow at the First Community Recognition Banquet - circa 1992, photo, LGBT-007 Dan Miller Collection, LGBT History Project, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
- Mary Nancarrow, interviewed by Ann Van Dyke, 9 October 2013, LGBT Oral History 084A, LGBT History Project, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
- Rachel Levine, interviewed by Barry Loveland, 6 February 2017, LGBT Oral History 064, LGBT History Project, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
- Shaka Hudson, interviewed by Don Fitz, 3 August 2015, LGBT Oral History 050, LGBT History Project, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
