The MSU Libraries have an extensive scholarly collection on gender studies, including academic journals, books and ebooks, and conference proceedings. Within Special Collections, our focus is on collecting the voices of LGBTQ individuals and groups.
Bill Beachler (1945?-1970) was a Lansing-area activist for LGBT rights and a long-time employee of the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Beachler was a founding member of the Lansing Association for Human Rights, held several offices in LAHR and published its newsletter. He served 14 years as an East Lansing city commissioner, and contributed his time and efforts to many local organizations serving the gay community, including the Lansing Mayor's Advisory Board on the Concerns of Lesbian & Gay Citizens, Pride PAC of Michigan, and the MSU GLBT Alumni Association. Beacher created the Pride Scholarship Fund for LGBTQ students at MSU.
The Bill Beachler Papers include photos, correspondence, news clippings, concert programs from LGBTQ choruses, and records of Beachler's activity with numerous organizations.
Dignity is an organization for gay and lesbian Roman Catholics. Background:
The Dignity Archive at MSU includes newsletters and other publications from Dignity chapters throughout the United States, covering the years 1969 to 1985.
The Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Rights Press Photographs Collection (1970-1990s) is comprised of images from protests and demonstrations in various United States cities. Many photographs have typewritten or handwritten captions on the back and some have press stamps.
The Gay Magazine Collection includes three boxes of erotic magazines for gay men, primarily from the 1960s and 1970s.
The Gay Pulp Paperback Book Collection includes more than 600 examples of gay men's pulp fiction, primarily from the 1970s.
Titles are listed individually in the finding aid. Works are arranged first by publishers' series title, then by author or author's pseudonym.
The George H. Conger Photo Collection includes primarily male nude photography, from several dozen different studios.
Goldenrod Music LLC is a women's music distributor, based in Lansing, Michigan and founded by Terry Grant.
The Goldenrod Music Records (1976-2011) contain sales catalogs, posters, artists' press kits, photographs, administrative records, and approximately 700 recordings in vinyl, cassette, and CD formats by lesbian and feminist women musicians.
Born out of the second wave feminist movement and women's music movement, Goldenrod was originally one of 60 independent women's music distributors, and as a result of the evolving music industry, became the last still in operation. This collection is a rich resource for information on women's music, musicians and entertainers, and the broader evolving music industry.
The Lansing Association for Human Rights was founded in 1979 to provide a safe social space for the GLBT community.
LAHR started the Greater Lansing Lesbian/Gay Hotline in 1981 as an information and crisis line for central and lower Michigan. The hotline's information files include newsletters, flyers, and newspaper clippings from and about a wide range of social, cultural, political, spiritual, health care, and social service organizations.
Larry Tate (1945-2008) earned a B.A. in English from Michigan State University, where he was co-founder and assistant editor for the weekly student publication, The Paper. The Paper was a founding member of the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) and often locked horns with MSU President Hannah and University Secretary Jack Breslin's administration in the late 1960s-70s.
After graduation, Tate moved to the San Francisco area and was involved in the Gay Men's Collective of the Berkeley Free Clinic and San Francisco's HIV/AIDs hotline service, Project Inform, from 1989-1993. He later moved to Washington D.C. to work at the National HIV/AIDS Prevention Program at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
The Larry Tate Papers contain clippings on MSU student activism, The Paper, Tate family photographs, published writings, personal journals from Tate's time in San Francisco, and eulogies by Tate's friends.
Michigan author Lev Raphael won a Lambda Literary Award in 1991 for Dancing on Tisha B'av, and has continued to write prolifically in several genres, including memoir and fiction.
The Mark Ritzenhein Gay Picture Collection includes five boxes of postcards, greeting cards, calendars, advertising catalogs etc. featuring images of men, many in erotic poses or situations.
Special Collections is excited to have the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival records, which are currently being processed. If you wish to access this collection, please contact Special Collections: spc@mail.lib.msu.edu
The Michigan Writers Symposium Archive documents an annual literary event held by the MSU Libraries from 1992 to 1998, except in 1996.
The 1994 event was "A Tribute to Isabel Miller." Isabel Miller was the pseudonym for Alma Routsong, a Michigan native whose lesbian fiction was honored with the American Library Association's first Stonewall Book Award.
Four other LGBTQ authors with connections to Michigan and the Great Lakes region took part in the event: Anita Skeen, Lev Raphael, Barbara Grier, and Katherine V. Forrest.
Papers for the 1994 event are in MSS 241, Box 3.
The event was also recorded for MSU's Vincent Voice Library and can be heard online: Part 1 Part 2
The Queer Politics Collection has more than 250 items of ephemera from the 1970s to 2000. It documents many area of LGBTQ activism, but especially the labor movement and discrimination in employment.
Terri L. Jewell (1954-1995) was an African American, lesbian-feminist author and activist. She grew up in Louisville but attended MSU and lived in Lansing as an adult.
She was the editor of The Black Woman's Gumbo Ya-Ya: Quotations by Black Women (Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1993) and published poetry and essays in dozens of publications.
Her personal papers are held in Special Collections, as well as a bibliography of her work.
The Steve Huyser Collection on LGBT Choirs and Other Material contains materials relating to his extensive work with LGBT Choruses.
Formats include programs, brochures, fliers, newspaper clippings, magazines, CDs, Blue Ray DVDs, and posters relating to the Heartland Gay Men’s Chorus, The Greater Lansing Gay Men’s Chorus, and other LGBT choruses from throughout the United States.
The Huyser collection also contains ephemera and artifacts relating to gay motorcyclist clubs, the East Lansing crisis hotline, and the VaxGen study for vaccinations of people infected with HIV/AIDS.
The Waynesart Sculpture Collection includes four pieces by Wayne Hampton, believed to be the first and only sculptor in the U.S. who created art for the gay community. The pieces are table-top size.