Gay community -- New York (State) -- Fire Island (Island)

Scope and Contents: The Jesse Deane papers and photographs contains correspondence, photographs, negatives, film, videocassettes, printed material, personal papers, artwork and other material by or relating to physique model, photographer, and gay pornographic actor Jesse Deane. Of note is a photographic album and slides that document Fire Island, N.Y. in the 1960s.

Overview: The papers document William Silver's personal life, seminary thesis, his application for ordination into the United Presbyterian Church, and his later life in the Cherry Grove community on Fire Island, New York. Particularly well documented is Silver's coming out process and the Presbyterian Church's debate on the ordination of homosexuals in the 1970s. The papers consist of journals, writings, sermons, correspondence, photographs, newsletters and newsletter design files, news clippings, and...