Katherine Lahusen (also known as Kay Tobin; January 5, 1930 – May 26, 2021) was an American photographer, writer and gay rights activist. She was the first openly lesbian American
photojournalist
Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (suc ...
.
[Riordan, Kevin (Fall 2001). "Together they sparked a movement: Gay Pioneers Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen reflect on their 40-year political—and personal—partnership". ''Visions Today''; pp. 17–19, 38] Under Lahusen's art direction, photographs of
lesbian
A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
s appeared on the cover of ''
The Ladder'' for the first time. It was one of many projects she undertook with partner
Barbara Gittings, who was then ''The Ladder''s editor. As an activist, Lahusen was involved with the founding of the
Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) in 1970 and the removal of homosexuality from the
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...
's ''
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...
'' (DSM). She contributed writing and photographs to a
New York–based ''Gay Newsweekly'' and ''
Come Out!'', and co-authored two books: ''The Gay Crusaders'' in 1972 with
Randy Wicker
Randolfe Hayden "Randy" Wicker (born February 3, 1938) is an American author, activist, blogger, and archivist. Notable for his involvement in the early homophile and gay liberation movements, Wicker has documented the early years and many of th ...
(under her pen name Kay Tobin) and ''Love and Resistance: Out of the Closet into the Stonewall Era'', collecting their photographs with
Diana Davies in 2019.
Early life
Katherine Lahusen was born on January 5, 1930, in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
. She was brought up by her grandparents, George and Katherine (Walker) Lahusen.
She developed her interest in photography as a child. "Even as a kid I liked using a little box camera and pushing it and trying to get something artsy out of it", she recalled.
She attended
Withrow High School, graduating in 1948.
As a teenager she noticed her attraction to women, via crushes on stars like
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...
, and went to
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...
with a girlfriend.
Lahusen studied English and planned to become a teacher;
meanwhile, the relationship lasted six years. Lahusen graduated in 1952 and they moved in together,
but her girlfriend ultimately left "in order to marry and have a normal life", leaving Lahusen devastated by the loss.
[ Corinne, Tee (Winter 2005-2006). "Kay Tobin Lahusen: Photographer as Activist". '' Sinister Wisdom'' 66 pp. 64–68]
Career
Lahusen spent the next six years in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
working in the reference library of ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...
''. After a psychiatrist specializing in gay clients showed her a copy of the lesbian magazine
''The Ladder'' (published by the
Daughters of Bilitis), she reached out to the organization
and met
Barbara Brooks Gittings at a Daughters of Bilitis picnic in 1961. They became a couple and Lahusen moved to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
to be with Gittings.
When Gittings took over ''The Ladder'' in 1963, Lahusen became art director,
and made it a priority to improve the quality of art on the covers. Where previously there were simple line drawings, characterized by Lahusen as "pretty bland, little cats, insipid human figures,"
Lahusen began to add photographs of real lesbians on the cover beginning in September 1964. The first showed two women from the back, on a beach looking out to sea. But Lahusen really wanted to add full-face portraits of lesbians. "If you go around as if you don't dare show your face, it sends forth a terrible message", Lahusen remembered.
Several covers showed various women willing to pose in profile, or in sunglasses, but by the mid-1960s Lahusen was able to persuade some women to have their faces shown on the cover, including
Lilli Vincenz
Lilli Vincenz (September 26, 1937 – June 27, 2023) was a German-born American lesbian activist and the first lesbian member of the gay political activist effort, the Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW).
Vincenz served as the editor of the o ...
, who had been discharged from the military when she was outed, and
Ernestine Eckstein, an African American lesbian activist who picketed the White House in 1965.
By the end of Gittings' period as editor, Lahusen remembered there was a waiting list of women who wanted to be full-face on the cover of the magazine.
She wrote articles in ''The Ladder'' under the name Kay Tobin, a name she picked out of the phone book, and which she found was easier for people to pronounce.
Lahusen photographed Gittings and other people who picketed federal buildings and
Independence Hall
Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted by the Founding Fathers of ...
in the mid- to late- 1960s. She contributed photographs and articles to a
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
newspaper called ''Gay Newsweekly'', and worked in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
's
Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, the first bookstore devoted to better literature on gay themes, and to disseminating materials that promoted a gay political agenda.
She worked with Gittings in the gay caucus of the
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world.
History 19th century ...
, and photographed thousands of activists, marches, and events in the 1960s and 1970s.
Frank Kameny and
Jack Nichols and many other gay activists became her subjects.
Lahusen participated in activism via organizing as well as art. In the 1960s she held and photographed "
Annual Reminder" pickets in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia on the
Fourth of July
Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States which commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing th ...
.
In 1970, Lahusen was part of the founding of the original
Gay Activists Alliance,
and in 1972 worked to push the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
(APA) to remove homosexuality from its
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...
. As part of the latter, she also photographed
John E. Fryer wearing the disguise he donned to protect his reputation when he addressed the APA convention as a gay psychiatrist. Homosexuality was dropped as a diagnosis the following year.
Recalling her work from the perspective of 2021, Kevin Jennings, head of
Lambda Legal, said, "It is impossible to overstate Kay’s importance in the struggle for LGBT rights and dignity."
Later life
In the 1980s Lahusen became involved in real estate, and placed ads in gay papers. She also organized agents to get them to march in the
New York City Pride March.
More recently, her photographs were featured in exhibits at
the William Way LGBT Community Center in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and the
Wilmington Institute Library in
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
.
In 2007, all of Lahusen's photos and writings and Gittings' papers and writings were donated to the
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
. Lahusen and Gittings were together for 46 years when Gittings died of
breast cancer
Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...
on February 18, 2007, aged 74. Lahusen was working on collecting her photographs for a photography scrapbook on the history of the gay rights movement when Gittings' illness put the plans on hold. In 2015, she collaborated with Tracy Baim who wrote a biography of Gittings called ''Barbara Gittings, gay pioneer'', illustrated with Lahusen’s photographs.
The same year, Lahusen appeared on the podium at a Philadelphia event celebrating both the history and future of gay rights, soon after the Supreme Court ruling that legalized
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
. In 2019, she and
Diana Davies published ''Love and Resistance: Out of the Closet into the Stonewall'' ''Era, collecting their photographs.''
A review in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' described the collection as "priceless pictures of LGBTQ pioneers".
Until shortly before her death, Lahusen resided in
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, in an assisted living facility. She died at Chester County Hospital, Pennsylvania, on May 26, 2021, after a brief illness.
She was 91. A plot of land at the
Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., next to the burial place of Gittings has been allotted to Lahusen. The ashes of both will be interred inside a stone bench engraved with the motto they helped popularize: "Gay is good."
Legacy
In 2016, a
historical marker was placed at 21st and Locust Streets in Philadelphia, near the apartment Gittings and Lahusen shared in the 1960s; the marker describes Gittings' work in
LGBT rights in Philadelphia. Two episodes from the podcast ''
Making Gay History'' feature Lahusen and Gittings, and a bonus episode of that podcast is about Lahusen's monthly dinner meetings with other gay people.
Books
* ''The Gay Crusaders,'' as Kay Tobin, with
Randy Wicker
Randolfe Hayden "Randy" Wicker (born February 3, 1938) is an American author, activist, blogger, and archivist. Notable for his involvement in the early homophile and gay liberation movements, Wicker has documented the early years and many of th ...
(1972)
* ''Love and Resistance: Out of the Closet into the Stonewall'' ''Era, collecting their photographs,'' with
Diana Davies (2019)
References
External links
Frank Kameny's website, with early photographs by Lahusen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lahusen, Kay
1930 births
2021 deaths
American photojournalists
American lesbian writers
American LGBTQ rights activists
LGBTQ people from Ohio
Political activists from Pennsylvania
Writers from Cincinnati
American LGBTQ journalists
Photographers from Ohio
American LGBTQ photographers
Daughters of Bilitis members
21st-century American women writers
American women photojournalists
20th-century American women photographers
20th-century American photographers