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Stonewall and Its Impact on the Gay Liberation Movement
A 1985 letter from Don Baker, a gay rights activist, to Dallas City Councilwoman Lori Palmer regarding gay rights.

A 1985 letter from Don Baker, a gay rights activist, to Dallas City Councilwoman Lori Palmer regarding gay rights.

Don Baker, a gay rights activist, sent this typed letter to Lori Palmer, a Dallas, Texas, city councilwoman. The letter discusses gay rights activism and terminology used to describe gay people. In the letter, Don refers to an ongoing effort to partner with the Dallas city council to “pursue the cause for gay rights.” He refers to an approach taken by the city council of Houston, which collected information on discriminatory practices against gay and lesbian community members, an approach he feels would be acceptable to people who did not support gay rights efforts. The letter serves as an example of the shift in advocacy language from the 1950s to the 1980s, from describing gay men and women as individuals attracted to same-sex partners to describing affectional orientation as a “total emotional, psychological, and erotic state of being.”

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Citation Information
“Letter from Don Baker to Lori Palmer regarding gay rights and activism,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/01ca1dacf0d2a52f1e10760d49437951.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of UNT Archives via The Portal to Texas History.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 9 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Stonewall and Its Impact on the Gay Liberation Movement

Previous ItemNext Item
An excerpt from a 1958 radio program discussing gay people in the US.
A letter from Phil Johnson to Circle of Friends board members outlining the history of the organization.
A photograph of the window of the Stonewall Inn in New York City, 1969.
A photograph of the Gay Liberation Front picketing Time, Inc., in 1969.
The Gay Liberation Front platform statement, December 2, 1970.
A photograph of Gay Liberation Front members at a demonstration with a poster saying “Sappho was a right-on woman.”
A radio interview with a lesbian named Chris about her identity and politics, 1972.
An excerpt from a 1978 debate about California Proposition 6, an effort to ban gay men and women from working in California public schools.
A 1985 letter from Don Baker, a gay rights activist, to Dallas City Councilwoman Lori Palmer regarding gay rights.
A Stonewall GLBT button.
A 1990 press release announcing that black leaders had met to “discuss lesbian/gay issues.”
A pamphlet for the twentieth anniversary of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 1994.
Excerpts from a 2000 research article titled “Changing Social Attitudes in the United States: Increasing Acceptance of Homosexuals.”
A 2011 article about the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York State.
A 2014 article about the National Park Service’s decision to commemorate significant sites from LGBT history.

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