Rev. Robert P.Wheatly was a gay Unitarian Universalist Minister and social justice pioneer who lived and worked in Massachusetts from 1949 until his death in 2002. He lived in Cambridge until his death and was active in several positions in the Unitarian Universalist Church, LGBT groups, specifically in Boston and Cambridge and also groups related to aging and affordable housing groups. Throughout his tenure as director of the Unitarian Universalist (U.U.) Office of Gay Concerns, he traveled extensively throughout North America to attend conferences and workshops, and speaking engagements associated with LGBT and church issues.

During his career, Wheatly traveled extensively to Unitarian Universalist conferences and churches presenting the case for new understandings, attitudes, rights and services for gay people. He lobbied at the State House in Boston, took part in the Annual Boston Gay Pride Parade, and gave leadership to Gay Pride Worship Services. He also compiled A Planning Guide for a Same Sex Holy Union Ceremony, published by his office in 1987. He officiated at gay and lesbian unions throughout his career. Wheatly was best known for exuding happiness and his good humor. He once gave a speech on Groundhogs and Fairies for Groundhog Day.

Wheatly was a founding member in 1987 of Prime Timers, a group of older gay men, now a worldwide organization with thousands of members. Upon his death, he was survived by his partner of 45 years, Kenneth J. English, who died in 2006.

The collection totals 7 document boxes (1-4, 5a-5b, 6) of Wheatly’s professional papers that relate to LGBT issues, and primarily span during his tenure as Unitarian Universalist clergy and Director of the Boston Unitarian Universalist Office of Gay Concerns. His papers and correspondence relating to religious subjects but not LGBT were donated by Wheatly and THP to the Harvard Divinity School Archives. There are extensive materials on U.U. and LGBT related conferences that Wheatly attended, as well as notes and drafts of sermons, speeches, and workshops that Wheatly presented

The collection includes several photographs, mostly of Wheatly, dating back to the 1930s, as a youth, at his ordination, at Pride Marches, and with the Cambridge Council on Aging. Wheatly collected materials on the Kinsey Report and on Religion and the Kinsey Report. More extensive are materials on the Greater Boston Lesbian and Gay Interfaith Coalition (GBLBIC), begun in 1976, which spans from its foundation to the 1990’s. The GBLBIC protested at various events during its tenure, such as responding to the arrests of gay men for public sex in the Boston Public Library (BPL) restroom from the late 1970s to the protests over the including of sexual orientation in the state Hate Crimes law in 1988. Wheatly held a peaceful candlelight vigil at the statehouse, while other protesters chained themselves to the Senate Gallery railing to protest the legislature’s inaction on the bill. There are extensive materials on memorial services that Wheatly officiated mostly from the 1980s and 1990s. In one instance, Wheatly officiated for a couple’s holy union and also, in years later, the memorial service of one of the couple.

The collection consists of newspaper and magazines articles as well as booklets and pamphlets documenting the road to same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the bulk of which date from 2003 and 2004, along with files for individual same-sex marriages containing marriage licenses, photographs, wedding invitations and other material. There are also files relating to pro-marriage groups and organizations that date back to the mid-1980s. There are also papers and promotional material from a 2005 exhibit and a 2007 launch party hosted by The History Project.

Thomas Lang and Aaron Toleos founded KnowThyNeighbor.org in 2005. The website published the names and addresses of everyone who signed a VoteOnMarriage.org petition supporting a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (65,825 signatures were required prior to December 7th, 2005). It also collected affidavits from people who wanted their names removed from the petition because they had changed their minds, were misinformed about what they were signing, had been lied to or believed their signatures had been forged.

Because the signature information is public record, publishing it was considered legal. Some supporters of the proposed amendment felt that KnowThyNeighbor.org was attempting to intimidate signers by publishing their names and addresses on the Internet. Ultimately, VoteOnMarriage.org successfully collected enough signatures for the amendment to be voted on by the Massachusetts General Court, first in January of 2007 (where it passed) and again in June of 2007 (where it failed).

Janet Dendy was a health educator at Lowell High School and the official faculty advisor of Lowell High’s Gay Straight Alliance from September of 1997 until her retirement in 2002. Unofficially begun in 1996, The Rainbow Connection was created for as a club for students in grades 9 through 12 who wished to meet with peers to create a safe environment for LGBTQ students through education, promotion of community spirit, and support of gay and lesbian friends.

Janet Dendy’s Lowell High School GSA Collection consists of the records of the Rainbow Connection, including the organization’s constitution, membership rosters, activity flyers and one copy of the summer 1998 edition of The Rainbow Review. Information regarding the Massachusetts Department of Education’s “Safe School Program” as well as general information written for and about LGBTQ youth in Massachusetts is also included. Newspaper clippings included are taken from both gay and student media, such as Bay Windows and The Lowell High School Review. Photographs of Rainbow Connection activities are included in this collection. Two floppy disks, containing pictures of the May 1999 diversity banner and Janet Dendy’s Personal GSA file, require conversion before use. A Rainbow Connection T-shirt has been removed and relocated to The History Project’s T-shirt Collection, Coll.34.

The Beantown Bowling League began in 1986 and is still in existence today. The documents in the collection cover their early years as an organization from 1987-1992 and show the wide array of tournaments the group participated in, in addition to their Tuesday night bowling times. Initially the organization had approximately 70-80 bowlers and these were broken up into teams with a captain for each team. In addition to the Tuesday night bowling and various tournaments the organization participated in several fundraisers and had an annual Christmas banquet.

Also represented in the collection is the IGBO or the International Gay (or Lesbian) Bowling Organization which ran many annual tournaments in addition to sponsoring other tournaments for gay and lesbian bowlers. The international organization is considered “the sports membership organization of choice for the gay community worldwide” and was founded in 1980 and is still in existence today. Tournaments hosted by the IGBO include annual tournaments and mid-year tournaments.

Rabbi Howard A. Berman is the founding rabbi of Boston Jewish Spirit, a progressive Reform synagogue in Back Bay; he is also Rabbi Emeritus of Chicago Sinai Congregation. He was a founder of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry in 1997 and has been an active advocate for the progressive religious voice in support of Marriage Equality.

The Howard Berman Archive consists of files containing newspaper and magazine clippings (community, mainstream, and national publications), announcements and circulars, press releases, emails, and other materials documenting Berman’s participation in the activities of a number of organizations, particularly the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, and the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts.

The organization, Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts had been engaged in grassroots education, advocacy and lobbying in support of civil marriage rights for same sex couples since 1993. The FTMC also played a key role in the founding and growth of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, RCFM. The RCFM was formed by a group of clergy who met informally at a FTMC function in 1997. One of the co-founders was Rabbi Howard Berman, (see also The History Project, MS. COL. 26, Howard Berman Collection). The RCFM was a group of more than 700 clergy, congregations, and organizations from 23 faith traditions, including the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association and Reform Judaism, Roman Catholics and others. Not many Roman Catholic Priests signed the declaration of support. On the 1000 signer Declaration of Support there was one Catholic Priest (Apostolic) who signed. There were members of various Roman Catholic parishes who would later sign a statement of support targeted at non-clergy Catholic supporters of same-sex marriage rights.

The collection, 7 record cartons, includes documents and printed materials, photographs and digital media, and oversized newsprint. The materials cover topic areas such as administration, lobbying, religious services, constituent information, legislator information, and event planning including statements, press releases, event planning documents, declarations of support, materials on how congregations contact the public on controversial subjects, and administrative documents outlining the day to day administration of the coalition. Also included were numerous banners and signs used at various functions of the RCFM. These banners portray various congregations support for same sex marriage rights. Banners were used at events at the State House, at various places of worship, press conferences and rallies.

Founded in 1988 at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, MA, Project 10 East was the first school-based program for LGBT youth. As a response to the 1987 suicide of a recent graduate of the high school who had been trying to come to terms with his sexuality, Al Ferreira, a teacher at the school, decided there was a problem that needed to be addressed. After coming out to the school community, Ferreira went about creating a “safe space” for discussions of sexuality and identity. The group’s name comes from Project 10, a program founded by Virginia Uribe in 1984 at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. Ferreira started the first public school Gay Straight Alliance in the Northeast. Since its founding P10E has paved the way for the establishment of other GSA programs and has been active in many different events and forums including Gay Youth Pride marches. Project 10 East’s goal is to create an environment to welcome and support gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual students and function as a safe place for these students.

P10E became a non-profit organization in 1996, under the leadership of both Ferriera and Christine Markowski. The name Project 10 East is used for both the initial Gay Straight Alliance founded in Cambridge Rindge and Latin and the non-profit although they are separate organizations now and the collection contains documents from both organizations.

The collection consists of a number of files and photographs documenting the early years of Project 10 East, along with flyers, handouts, and pamphlets of instructional information. Many of the photographs are contained in Series V, which is spread out over three boxes and an album. There are also photographs from the exhibit “Visible and Proud” which are contained in folder 5 of Series III as they represent an event that was supported by Project 10 East. There are a number of newspaper articles, half of which relate to P10E and half of which focus on issues of sexuality, homophobia, and celebrations of prominent gay and lesbian individuals.

SpeakOut’s roots trace back to 1972, when the Daughters of Bilitis and the Homophile Union of Boston joined forces to create the Gay Speakers Bureau. Since then, the organization has evolved and expanded to reflect the rich diversity of the LGBTQ community, including bisexual, transgender and intersex people. SpeakOut was known as the Gay and Lesbian Speakers Bureau throughout the 1990s.

This collection is primarily comprised of speaker training materials and audience evaluations of speakers. It also contains grant applications, financial information, committee meeting minutes, workshops, resource packets, project planning papers, and the SpeakOut newsletter The Speaker.

The Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth (GCGLY) was created by executive order on February 10, 1992 by Governor William Weld, in an effort to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth community. The Commission was formed to address diverse issues that face LGBT youth, including: discrimination and violence in school and family life, drug and alcohol abuse, runaways, high school dropouts, homelessness, and teenage suicide. On October 7, 1998, Governor A. Paul Cellucci expanded the powers of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth and renewed the executive office’s commitment to combat suicide and violence affecting LGBT youth. The GCGLY functioned until mid-2006 when it was dissolved and replaced by the Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth which was established by the Massachusetts General Court on July 1st, 2006.

This collection (Coll. 30) consists of seven archival boxes of documents created or collected by Bernie Gardella, Assistant to the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, dated between 1993 and 2007. The collection is divided into two sub collections based upon the two significant programs of the GCGLY: Gay/Straight Youth Pride March (MS Coll. 30.1) and the Safe Schools and Colleges Program (MS Coll. 30.2). This finding aid is arranged by these two sub collections with the Box and Series Description and Box and Folder List for Youth Pride March first, followed by the Box and Series Description and Box and Folder List for the Safe Schools and Colleges Program. Series numerals and folder numbers begin at Series I and Folder 1 for each sub collection.