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Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: Coll2014-031

Scope and Contents

Criminal court records, civil court records, correspondence, law review articles, clippings, reports, state bills and laws, notes, meeting minutes, grant applications, biographical information, and other professional papers of Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn documenting their work as sexual civil liberty attorneys and advocates from 1972-1991. The records document Coleman's and Kohorn's legal work, publications, participation in government and non-profit commissions and committees, and involvement in sexual civil liberty issues on behalf of the LGBT community.

Dates

  • Creation: 1932-2011

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

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

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. The credit line reads "Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn, equal rights advocates."

Biographical / Historical

"Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn see themselves as participants in and shapers of what they call the most important constitutional movement of this century: The growth of the right to privacy and personal autonomy." -quote from "Portrait of a Sexual Civil Liberties Office," box 10, folder 21.

Thomas F. Coleman graduated from the Loyola University School of Law in Los Angeles in 1973. In 1974, Coleman became publisher of the Sexual Law Reporter, a joint venture of the National Committee on Sexual Civil Liberties (NCSCL) and the American Civil Liberties Union to publish analyses on statutory and case law in the field of sexuality. Jay M. Kohorn joined the venture as associate editor in 1979. Coleman and Kohorn served as co-directors for NCSCL and continued to work on issues related to the Sexual Law Reporter through 1982.

Coleman and Kohorn were based in California, but worked nationally on legal cases that affected sexual civil liberties, whether as litigators, consultants, or advocates submitting friend-of-the-court briefs. They fought against the discriminatory use of loitering, solicitation, and lewd and lascivious conduct laws against gay and lesbian people. They fought against discrimination in policing, criminal laws, employment, military service, marriage equality, and family law. They fought the mandated closure of San Francisco's bathhouses in 1984 and California Proposition 6, The LaRouche Initiative, in 1986. They gave seminars, lectures, and special assistance on sexual civil liberty legal issues to college classes, gay and lesbian groups, service providers, special interest groups, public defenders, and prosecutors.

Coleman was director of the Commission on Personal Privacy and authored the commission’s final report (Kohorn wrote the executive summary) in 1982. Coleman and Kohorn served as consultants to the Los Angeles City Council's Task Force on Family Diversity, with Coleman authoring and Kohorn editing the final report. Coleman served as a member of the Attorney General of California's Commission on Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Minority Violence; as a member of the California Legislature's Joint Select Task Force on the Changing Family; and as chairperson of the City Attorney of Los Angeles' Consumer Task Force on Marital Status Discrimination. Kohorn was a founder of the Lambda Lawyers Roundtable, a national collection of lesbian and gay activists who sought to legalize private consensual sexual conduct. Both have published extensively and been honored for their work on behalf of sexual civil liberties and the gay and lesbian community. Coleman's book The Domino Effect details over four decades of his, and to a lesser extent Kohorn's, legal, lobbying, and special project work.

Extent

12 Linear Feet (12 archive boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Criminal court records, civil court records, correspondence, law review articles, clippings, reports, state bills and laws, notes, and other professional papers of Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn documenting their careers from 1972-1991. Coleman and Kohorn were attorneys specializing in defending sexual civil liberties, primarily in the LGBT community.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following series:

Series 1. Court records, 1954-1991

Series 2. Administrative records, 1932-1991, 2011

Other Finding Aids

Sexual Law Reporter records, Coll2013-020, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Zeke Zeidler California State University, Northridge, Associated Students Incorporated Senate Papers , Coll2012-166, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Deed of gift from Thomas F. Coleman is dated December 3, 2014. Deed of gift from Jay Kohorn and Zeke Zeidler is dated August 16, 2009.

Related Materials

Extensive records documenting the work of Thomas Coleman and Jay Kohorn can be found in the archives section of the website of The Domino Effect at http://dominoeffectbook.com/archives.htm. The website http://www.unmarriedamerica.org/Archives/ also contains digitized copies of some of the records in this collection.

Separated Materials

Separated to the ONE Archives comics, pamphlets, and maps collections

1982 Gay San Francisco Map-Guide. Silver Star.

Barr, Donna. The Desert Peach: Foreign Relations. Seattle: Aeon, 1990-1994.

Barr, Donna. Peach Slices. Seattle: Aeon, 1993.

National Gay Task Force. Gay Civil Rights: Support Statements and Resolutions Packet, volume 1. 1973.

Rudahl, Sharon. Adventures of Crystal Night. Princeton, Wisconsin: Kitchen Sink Enterprises, 1980.

Separated to the ONE Archives periodical collection

Arkansas Gay Writes, v.2, no.5 (October 1981).

California Privacy Reports, no.3 (September/October 1983)

Capitol Hill, v.3, no.2.

Colorado Gay and Lesbian News, v.5, no.1 (December/January).

CSC Newsletter, v.7, no.5 and 6; no.8, v.1 (1981-1982).

Dignity, v.13, no.1 and 6 (1981-1982).

Gay Books Bulletin, no.9 (spring/summer 1983).

Gay Community News, v.9, no.21 (1981).

G.L.A.D. Briefs, a newsletter from Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (Fall 1981).

High Gear, v.8, no.3 and 5 (1981-1982).

Immigration Equality newsletter (June 1996).

Integrity Forum, v.8, no.2 (1982).

Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. (Winter 1992).

Lambda Update, v.7, no.1 (Winter 1990).

MOHR Information, v.4, no. 6-7 (May-July 1981).

ONE Institute Quarter of Homophile Studies, v.8, no.22 (1970).

ONEletter, v.26, no. 8, 10 (1981).

PLGTF Bulletin, v.3, no.9 (September 1981).

Sexual Law Reporter, v.4, no.1 (January/March 1978).

SIECUS Dispatch, v.5, no.2 (March 1982).

SIECUS Newsletter, v.6, no.4 (April 1970).

Task Force Report, v.8, no.5 (November/December 1981).

Update, the newsletter of Houston's Gay Political Caucus, election special (1982).

Vegetarian Gay and Lesbian Association (June/July 1995).

Separated to the ONE Archives library

Federal Response to AIDS. Hearings before a subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations House of Representatives. Ninety-eighth congress, first session. August 1-2, 1983.

Secretary of State for the Home Department and the Secretary of State for Scotland. Report of the Committee on Homosexual Offenses and Prostitution. September 1957.

The South Atlantic Quarterly. "Displacing Homophobia," v.88, no.1. Durham, North Caroline: Duke University Press, winter 1989.

Separated to the ONE Archives audiovisual colletion

Nightwatch with Charlie Rose. San Francisco closure of bathhouses, discussion with Jay Kohorn and Mervyn Silverman. 1984. (VHS)

Processing Information

Previously in boxes 103-3, 103-4, 103-5, 103-11, 103-19, 103-137, 103-191F, 103-219, 103-293, 104-50, 104-51, and 104-99. Collection processed by Kyle Morgan, 2014.

  • <p>California Family Law Report, v.6, no.1 and 4 (1982).</p> <p>California Trial Lawyers Association. Recognition of Experience Directory, 1980.</p> <p>Campbell's List: The Lawyers' Guide to Out-of-Town Counsel. Maitland, Florida: Campbell's List Inc., 1979.</p> <p>The Criminal Code. State of California Joint Legislative Committee for Revision of the Penal Code.</p> <p>Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Mineola, New York: The Foundation Press Inc., 1970.</p> <p>Frank's Bar Review training materials.</p> <p>Grant, tax, and fundraising direct mail, publications, and blank applications from non-LGBT organizations.</p> <p>Hill, Sonny. The Criminal Pretrial Motions Checklist with Points and Authorities. Fresno, California: Inside/Out Press Legal Society, [197?].</p> <p>Instant Scripts, Southern California Paradox Users Group (LAPALS), April 1989 - August 1990.</p> <p>The Los Angeles Daily Journal, Daily Appellate Report, December 14, 1983.</p> <p>The Review, September/October 1981.</p>
Title
Finding Aid to the Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn Papers, 1932-2011
Status
Completed
Author
Kyle Morgan
Date
(c) 2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English
Sponsor
Processing this collection has been funded by a generous grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. An addendum to this collection has been funded by a generous grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources.

Repository Details

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

Contact:
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Los Angeles California 90007 United States
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