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Jim Long papers

 Collection — Box: 1
Identifier: Coll2007-011

Scope and Content

The collection contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, writings, and printed materials relating to Jim Long's activities as director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center's Educational Outreach Program, and as a private consultant, primarily in the years 1977-1981. The papers fall into three groups: (1) Conferences, Workshops, and Consulting; (2) Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center; and (3) Subject files.

The bulk of the Conferences, Workshops, and Consulting files consists of correspondence and sample writings of applicants to and participants in a writers' workshop held by Malcolm Boyd and sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in 1980-1981, for which Long acted as teaching assistant; and correspondence, news releases, scripts, and other materials produced and acquired between 1980 and 1982 by Long in his capacity as alternate coordinator of the Gay/Lesbian Work Group, formed to advise the California State Department of Mental Health's Lesbian/Gay Male Mental Health Promotion Project "We Are [All] Family".. This project was one of several, each targeting a different population group, under the general heading "Friends Can Be Good Medicine". The project produced several public service announcements, featuring celebrities such as Abigail Van Buren, judge Steven Lachs, and actors Mike Farrell, Jack Albertson; and Ed Asner, intended for broadcast on local network television; however, California Secretary of Health and Welfare Mario Obledo considered them too controversial, and they were never shown. The group files also contain materials from the 1979 and 1980 annual conferences of the Gay Academic Union (GAU), Long's testimony before the California Commission on Personal Privacy in 1982, and a review copy of the California State Personnel Board booklet, What is a sexual minority anyway?

The files relating to the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center include correspondence relating to Long's speaking engagements before college classes and civic groups and media relations, in particular, scripts for radio public service announcements featuring the Center and copies of correspondence with the Los Angeles Times relating to its publication of negative comments concerning gays and lesbians. The materials also include an undated report by Steve Schulte and Josy Catoggio on the White House Conference on the Family, a 1978 organizational study of the Center, notes on a 1979 Men's Meeting concerning a consciousness-expanding process for the Center, and a 1980 report on the structure of the Lesbian Resource Center.

The Subject files comprise materials collected by Long in support of his activities at the Center and as a private consultant, and cover such topics as homophobia, employment discrimination, gay teachers and public health workers, feminism, lesbianism, transexuality, religion, the Advocate Experience, men and consciousness, wellness, women's resources, and marketing to the gay community.

Dates

  • Creation: 1969 - 1983
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1977 - 1981

Creator

Access

The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.

Publication Rights

Researchers wishing to publish materials must obtain permission in writing from ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives as the physical owner. Researchers must also obtain clearance from the holder(s) of any copyrights in the materials. Note that ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives can grant copyright clearance only for those materials for which we hold the copyright. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain copyright clearance for all other materials directly from the copyright holder(s).

Biography

James Augustus Long III trained originally to become a teacher, but while working as a student teacher in a school for emotionally disturbed children in Dade County, FL, in 1970, he was outed and fired. He moved to California that same year, but his record followed him, and he was unable to find work as a teacher. From 1971 to 1975, he worked for Union Bank, but was denied promotion because of his sexual orientation. In 1975, he was hired by the Los Angeles Gay (later Gay and Lesbian) Community Services Center, where he worked as a counselor and as director of the Educational Outreach Program. He left the Center in approximately 1981, to work as a consultant, counselor, and child care worker at a collective in Echo Park/Silverlake. In 1981 and 1982, he also served as alternate coordinator of the California State Department of Mental Health's Gay/Lesbian Work Group.

Extent

1 Linear Feet (3 boxes.)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Correspondence, memoranda, notes, writings, and printed materials, primarily from the years 1977-1981, relating to Jim Long's activities as director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center's Educational Outreach Program, and as a private consultant, in particular with the California State Department of Mental Health's Lesbian/Gay Male Mental Health Promotion Project.

Acquisition Information

Separated from the L. A. Gay & Lesbian Center Records (Coll2007-010).

Related Material

L. A. Gay & Lesbian Center Records, Coll2007-010, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

Processing Information

Collection processed by Michael P. Palmer, July 12-13, 2007.

Processing this collection has been funded by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Title
Finding aid of the Jim Long papers
Status
Completed
Author
Michael P. Palmer
Date
© 2007
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in: English

Repository Details

Part of the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, University of Southern California Repository

Contact:
909 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles California 90007 United States
(213) 821-2771