The lesbian study

The Lesbian Study (Video ) - Cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. The Journal of Lesbian Studies examines the cultural, historical, and interpersonal impact of the lesbian experience on society, keeping all readers – professional, academic, or general – informed and up-to-date on current findings, resources, and community concerns. The Lesbian Study Pt. 4: With Lena Anderson, Evelyn Claire.

About the Study What our study is about. The USA National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS) follows lesbian mothers and their children who were conceived by donor insemination during the s. The NLLFS examines the social, psychological, and emotional development of the children as well as the dynamics of planned lesbian families.

Gay and Lesbian Studies is by nature cross-disciplinary, covering a wide range of intellectual bases: literature, history, religion, psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, medicine, law, fine arts, and others. Resources in this subject area may be found in nearly every division of the Research Libraries. This guide offers multiple trajectories into this richly varied field.

The research and study

Resources in this subject area may be found in nearly every division of the Research Libraries. This guide offers multiple trajectories into this richly varied field. Despite the presence of large numbers of homosexuals in New York City and other urban centers in the United States and throughout the world, their history has often been neglected or marginalized, a testimony to the inhibiting factors of legal restrictions on certain forms of sexual conduct, the lack of organization among gay men and lesbians, and the unwillingness of the larger society to recognize the value and merit of different forms of erotic and affectional expression.

These difficulties notwithstanding, certain individuals in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Western societies, such as Karl Ulrichs and Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany and Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds in Britain, began to conceive of themselves as belonging to a discrete group possessing a distinct identity; that this insight was revolutionary is underscored by the fact that no name existed for this body of people who shared similar sexual longings and desires.

The term "uranian" was considered, but it failed to find favor and was replaced by words such as "homosexual" and "homophile," arbitrary constructions which, though workable, have been deemed too clinical in some quarters. By the late twentieth century "gay" and "lesbian" had become the recognized terms in scholarly and popular use. Although these pioneers of the gay rights movement are lauded by civil libertarians and activists for their contribution to the political and social liberation of homosexuals, they are also significant for their concern in recognizing the importance of collecting and preserving materials relating to homosexuals and their vehicles of self-expression and identification.

Yet this nascent attempt at identifying and collecting materials relating to the homosexual experience was itself inhibited and circumscribed by the need of many lesbians and gay men to lead hidden lives, fearful that self-disclosure would result in a loss of employment or legal difficulties. Of course, this very secrecy has made research strategies into the area of gay studies problematic, with scholars either attempting to intuit meanings not overtly expressed in historical records or employing materials such as court or police reports to identify behavior not discussed in more conventional sources.

Despite these problems The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library have managed, since their beginnings in , to collect materials relating to this large, but submerged, population. Although the subject entries in the Dictionary Catalog of the Research Libraries, , employ terms that appear today to be abstruse or arcane, the very presence of these works, some quite rare, attests to the Library's interest in acquiring in this field.

The catalog which lists the Library's acquisitions since , reflects the recent expansion of scholarly and popular interest in gay and lesbian studies. The published materials in the Research Libraries are complemented by manuscript collections reflecting the donation to the Library of various archives, the most significant being that of the International Gay Information Center, the inventory for which is available at the Information Desk in room These archives include the records of organizations such as the Gay Activists Alliance and the Mattachine Society; the personal papers of Arthur Bell, Jonathan Katz, and other gay men and lesbians; gay- and lesbian-related periodicals, both domestic and foreign; ephemera such as posters, flyers, announcements, gay comic and coloring books, t-shirts, buttons and games; and audio-visual materials.

The following information is specific to the topic at hand. The Dictionary Catalog is arranged primarily by subject and author; there are title entries for works of fiction. Reflecting the usage of its time, the Dictionary Catalog provides no subject heading for Gay and few entries can be found under Lesbian or Homosexuality ; the main subject entry for material dealing with male and female homosexuality is Sexual Inversion.

For antiquarian material, then, it is best to approach this catalog with the most specific citation possible the author's name is generally best , as not everything is to be found under Sexual Inversion. Entries in the catalog may be searched by author, title, subject, or keyword. Straightforward author or title searches should pose no problem. However, in contrast to the Dictionary Catalog , the diversity of subject headings utilized by the catalog can be bewildering.

Specific terms have been assigned distinct meanings; for example, entering the subject Homosexuality will not retrieve many titles on lesbianism. When a subject search is unsuccessful, retry it as a keyword; if that produces entries, review the full record for each item and note the subject headings under which it was cataloged.

Then do a subject search using those terms. For example, entering Gays Military as a subject heading retrieves no records; however, utilizing these terms as keywords does result in retrieving a citation which, when displayed as a full record, yields the appropriate subject headings through which other relevant titles can be found. For guidance in choosing the most useful subject terms for your search in the catalog, consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings volumes in Room The following subject headings will generate many titles:.

The question of appropriate subject headings for this new discipline and the value of same for researchers is ably addressed by Ellen Greenblatt in her essay "Homosexuality: The Evolution of a Concept in the Library of Congress Subject Headings" in Gay and Lesbian Library Service JFE which provides an excellent overview and guidelines. Allen, Jane, comp. Out on the Shelves: Lesbian Books into Libraries.

JLD British in scope, lists over works of literature, biography, history, psychology, etc.