Scope and Contents
The collection consists of professional papers, correspondence, personal papers, photographs, and computer and audiovisual media by or relating to gay rights activist and former Catholic nun Jean O'Leary. Professional papers document her work as executive director of National Gay Rights Advocates, including a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration over approval times for AIDS drugs. Also present are materials related to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, National Coming Out Day, Gay Activists Alliance, Access Now for Gay and Lesbian Equality, and the Democratic National Committee, and O'Leary's writings and speeches concerning advocacy and legal rights of gays and lesbians. Among the correspondents are Barbara Boxer, Ron Brown, Bill Clinton, Midge Costanza, Michael Dukakis, Dianne Feinstein, Ed Koch, Kate Millett, David B. Mixner, Sean Strub, Bruce Voeller, Sarah Weddington, Kay Whitlock, and Molly Yard. Personal papers contain awards, school papers, yearbooks, clippings, and interviews, in addition to pinback buttons, t-shirts, and other memorabilia commemorating gay rights milestones and political campaigns. Photographs feature O’Leary, Bella Abzug, Virginia Apuzzo, Tammy Baldwin, Costanza, Martin Duberman, Florynce Kennedy, Gloria Steinem, and Voeller, and events such as the Lesbian Feminist Liberation "Lavender Dinosaur Demonstration" in New York, Equal Rights Amendment march on Washington D.C., and the Democratic National Convention. Computer and audiovisual media chiefly relate to political campaigns.
Dates
- 1963-2005
Creator
- O'Leary, Jean (Author)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Box 19 (computer media): Restricted Fragile Material. Reference copies of electronic files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Box 20 (audiovisual material): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Jean O'Leary Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc. on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2017.
Arrangement
Organized into five series: I. Professional Papers, 1973-2005, undated. II. Correspondence, 1976-2004, undated. III. Personal Papers, 1963-2005. IV. Photographs, circa 1970-2005. V. Computer and Audiovisual Media, circa 1990-1994, undated.
Extent
18.35 Linear Feet (20 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The collection consists of professional papers, correspondence, personal papers, photographs, and computer and audiovisual media by or relating to gay rights activist and former Catholic nun Jean O'Leary.
Jean O’Leary (1948-2005)
Jean O'Leary was a former Roman Catholic nun who left her convent in 1971 to join the gay rights movement in New York City. O'Leary was a member of the Gay Activists Alliance until 1972 when she broke away from the group and formed Lesbian Feminist Liberation. She was co-executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force from 1976 to 1979 and subsequently became executive director of National Gay Rights Advocates. In 1977 O'Leary and Midge Costanza, her then-partner and special assistant to President Jimmy Carter, organized the first meeting of gay rights activists at the White House. O'Leary was also a speaker at the 1977 National Women's Conference. In 1988, she co-founded National Coming Out Day. O'Leary was active in Democratic Party politics and chaired the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Caucus from 1992 to 2002; her marketing company, O'Leary & Associates, worked on political campaigns in California for Barbara Boxer, Ron Brown, and Dianne Feinstein. She and her partner, Lisa Phelps, had a daughter, Victoria, and a son David de Maria.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization. Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- AIDS activists -- United States
- Access Now for Gay and Lesbian Equality
- Apuzzo, Virginia, 1941-
- Audiovisual materials
- Baldwin, Tammy, 1962-
- Born digital
- Boxer, Barbara
- Brown, Ronald Harmon, 1941-2006
- Buttons (information artifacts)
- Clinton, Bill, 1946-
- Coming Out Project (Human Rights Campaign)
- Costanza, Midge, 1932-2010
- Democratic National Committee (U.S.)
- Democratic Party (U.S.)
- Duberman, Martin B., 1930-
- Dukakis, Michael S. (Michael Stanley), 1933-
- Equal rights amendments
- Feinstein, Dianne, 1933-
- Gay Activists Alliance
- Gay liberation movement -- United States
- Gay rights -- United States
- Kennedy, Florynce, 1916-2000
- Koch, Ed, 1924-2013
- LGBTQ resource
- Lesbian Feminist Liberation
- Lesbian activists -- United States
- Lesbian feminism
- Lesbian nuns
- Lesbians -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States
- Lesbians' writings
- Millett, Kate
- Mixner, David B.
- National Gay Rights Advocates (U.S.)
- National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (U.S.)
- O'Leary, Jean
- Photographs
- Political activists -- United States
- Political campaigns -- United States
- Political parties -- California
- Protest movements -- United States -- 20th Century
- Sexual minorities
- Steinem, Gloria
- Strub, Sean O'Brien
- Sweat shirts
- T-shirts
- Voeller, Bruce R.
- Weddington, Sarah Ragle
- Whitlock, Kay
- Women -- Political activity
- Yard, Molly, 1912-2005
- Title
- Guide to the Jean O'Leary Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Brooke McManus
- Date
- October 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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