What is the Pennsylvania Rural Gay Caucus?
"PA Rural Gay Caucus at Philadelphia Pride Parade - 1976." Gift of Sam Deetz, 2013. LGBT-011 Sam Deetz Collection, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections.
Creation of the Caucus
The title of the television documentary and this 1966 primary brochure heralded Shapp as “The Man Against the Machine.”
Pennsylvania State Archives/MG-309
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By the mid-1970s, Pennsylvania had a large number of LGBTQ+ organizations located in small cities and towns and on college campuses. Governor Milton Shapp was a strong supporter of gay rights and he established one of the first government organizations whose goal was to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. “The Governor’s Task Force on Sexual Minorities” was formed in 1974 by Shapp and was comprised of government officials and members of LGBTQ+ communities across Pennsylvania who would advise state agencies on improving public policy for the LGBTQ+ population. It soon became clear that the concerns and needs of LGBTQ+ communities in large urban areas (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) were much different than those living in rural areas (anywhere outside Philadelphia or Allegheny County). Thus, in 1975, the Rural Gay Caucus was formed. Its purpose was to inform the committee on issues LGBTQ+ people faced in rural areas in Pennsylvania. |
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In his 2013 Oral History, Sam Deetz discussed Governor Shapp's election and re-election to public office, specifically how he quickly began to work to make important changes for the LGTBQ+ community in PA. He recalled his "proclamation" (executive order) that state employees in PA would stop facing discrimination for their sexual orientation and his creation of the task force that would evaluate the concerns and provide assistance to LGBTQ+ communities. Deetz then described the formation of the Caucus, and how Shapp's policies as well as the Gay Activist Alliance in Philadelphia influenced him to reach out to people in surrounding areas to form their own organization. |
LGBT Oral History – Deetz, Sam – 025, Dickinson College Archives Special Collections.
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LGBT Oral History – Horn, William “Miss Tina” - 133. Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections.
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William "Miss Tina" Horn discussed how Shapp's proclamation served as motivation for the gay community to enact social and political change. They recalled their attendance to the crowded Governor's meeting at the Capitol, in which they deliberated and decided on a name for their group: the Pennsylvania Commission for Sexual Minorities. |
The Mission of the Caucus
The Caucus first convened on October 18, 1975. The organization's purpose was to identify problems faced by gay men and women in Pennsylvania and to discuss potential solutions to these issues. At the 1975 conference, the Caucus identified four main problems:
- Lack of information for LGBTQ people of Pennsylvania about themselves and the gay rights movement
- Solution: Fostering awareness of the Caucus, the Gay rights movement, and issues faced by the LGBTQ community through media and publications, and by working with libraries, schools, and churches
- Lack of gay social interaction
- Solution: Creating discussion groups (both within the gay community and with the straight community), publishing newsletters, providing entertainment within the gay community
- Lack of gay community
- Solution: Lessening isolation through social interaction, tapping into resources from cities and interacting with LGBTQ organizations
- Lack of awareness and acceptance among parents of LGBTQ youths
- Solution: Educating parents on the LGBTQ community and creating parent groups to promote interaction and acceptance
"PA Rural Gay Caucus Meeting, Wilkes Barre, PA - April 10, 1976". Gift of Sam Deetz, 2013. LGBT-011 Sam Deetz Collection, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections.
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"We constructed the Rural Gay Caucus so as to avoid some of the problems that the big cities were having in the lesbian and gay rights movement: being fractured along gender lines. The men were not very appreciative of the women, and the women were always tangling with the chauvinistic attitudes of the men, so we instituted gender parity in the Rural Gay Caucus, so that we had co-chairs, one man and one woman." -Mary Nancarrow, LGBT Oral History – 084A, Dickinson College Archives Special Collections.
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The caucus focused on being an inclusive movement that could efficiently lobby for their rights. Mary Nancarrow, one of the Caucus's founders, acknowledged that other movements such as the women's, civil rights, and anti-war movement played pivotal roles in the organizing of LGBTQ+ movements and organizations. She described how the Caucus examined problems that existed within other movements in order to preemptively address them within their own organization.
