TITLE | DESCRIPTION | DATE CREATED | IS FORMAT OF |
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Rodgers Bruce 2010-03 | Bruce G. Rodgers was the author of The Queens’ Vernacular: a Gay Lexicon, a dictionary of gay slang. He was born October 15, 1942 in Wisconsin, moved to San Francisco in 1966 and died August 10, 2009. He is buried at the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery. Rodgers graduated from Wausau Senior High School in Wausau, Wisconsin in 1959. He attended Barstow Jr. College, 1960-1961 and University of Southern Nevada, 1961-1963. During the 1960s he worked as a teletype operator and supervisor for Review Journal Daily in Las Vegas and as a teletype operator at the Wall Street Journal in San Francisco. In the 1970s he worked in order fulfillment at Western Tape in Mountain View, California, then in the1980s at Albert L. Shultz Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto. He retired in 1996. On his resume (circa 1982), Rodgers describes his personal interests: “I have an overriding interest in linguistics and languages. I (sic) am reading fluent in Spanish, French, Judeo-Spanish, and Hebrew, and am knowledgeable of Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Italian, German, and Turkish. I am constantly interested in slang expressions in all languages.” His partner from 1966 to 1989 was Joe Jenkins (1935-1989) who had an interest in George Washington memorabilia. Jenkins’ collection of George Washington memorabilia was donated by Rodgers to the San José Historical Museum (currently History San José) in 1994.
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1942 to 2009 | |
Sodomy Laws Retrospective (1 of 3) | A panel discussion that took place ten years after California's "sodomy laws" were repealed. Historian Alan Bérubé details California's history with anti-gay legislation, beginning with the state's first law against sodomy that was passed in 1850 and continuing through to the decriminalization of both sodomy and oral sex between consenting adults in private in 1976. Bérubé also discusses historical patterns relating to sex laws, and he contextualizes the debate between public versus private information. Activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, cofounders of the Daughters of Bilitis, discuss the history of legislation criminalizing lesbian sex, and they detail the creation of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in the 1960s. This material was digitized through the generous support of Larry Brenner and Angelo Figone. |
1986-01-30 | |
Sodomy Laws Retrospective (2 of 3) | A panel discussion that took place ten years after California's "sodomy laws" were repealed. Activist Phyllis Lyon discusses the Council on Religion and the Homosexual's Brief of Injustices. Politician Willie Brown, then the California State Assembly's Speaker of the Assembly, discusses the legislative side of the creation and passing of the 1976 Consenting Adult Sex Law, which decriminalized private and consensual gay sex. Activist Jim Foster, then a member of the San Francisco Health Commission, reflects on his experiences as an out gay man when gay sex was still criminalized, and he discusses ways in which the community organized in the 1950s and 1960s, including San Francisco's Tavern Guild and the Mattachine Society, to protect itself and ultimately decriminalize gay sex and relationships. This material was digitized through the generous support of Larry Brenner and Angelo Figone. |
1986-01-30 | |
Sodomy Laws Retrospective (3 of 3) | A panel discussion that took place ten years after California's "sodomy laws" were repealed. Activist Jo Daly discusses instances of heterosexual individuals being convicted under anti-sodomy/anti-oral sex laws. Activist George Raya relates his experiences as a lobbyist in Sacramento in the 1970s who lobbied for the Consenting Adult Sex Law from 1974 until its passing in 1976. Leonard Graff, the legal director for the National Gay Rights Advocates, discusses the continuing fight against sodomy laws in the United States. This material was digitized through the generous support of Larry Brenner and Angelo Figone. |
1986-01-30 |