51 Years Out! - Dr. Kathy Rose-Mockry; Unknown

today on cue pierre presents fifty one years out and j mcintyre it's a weeklong celebration of lgbt q activism in kansas lawrence and at the university of kansas back to kathy rose mockery is the former director of key is emily taylor center for women and gender equity in the event organizer fifty one years out kathi is a great to see you again i'm thrilled to be here at first things first fifty one years about why fifty one episode interesting isn't that i'm well the intention was to have tons of that last year bad we all understand what happened with that and so but it is very odd when this group were originated in nineteen seventy in twenty twenty one to not acknowledged we last year and they're so let's jump back fifty one years to nineteen seventy or better yet a little earlier what was the climate like four lgbt q kansans in the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties

it is awkward a really important question to ask because i think it's wonderful that we have made a lot of progress but i think bringing back this history to help people understand what it was really like early on for an lgbt q plus people it was very oppressive it was very frightening you could be aren't there were no protections for people who were lgbt q and ii often people were targeted particularly by those in law enforcement and people often were hard rast were discriminated against could be fired certainly you look at campus professors could be fired for being identified as being lgbt q and ice students could be suspended dismissed i you could

actually be denied say an internship or a license id you need in order to go forward in your profession so it's it was a very difficult time and there were things certainly in no i'm not nationally that were going on that contributed to this feeling of oppression so people were very are isolated i was a fear it doesn't mean everybody fell that way but it was a pretty prevailing feeling of fear and targeting and bullying how did that begin to change in the late nineteen sixties and into nineteen seventy then late nineteen sixties were such an interesting time and todd get one who wrote a book called the sixties i talked about the interesting rose gets a compilation of various movements and it

was largely student driven but certainly the civil rights movement the black panthers the women's liberation movement now some of the movements that were really to end actually the women's movement startles later not till about nineteen seventy or so but tom all these posters and students on college campuses it really got the nation's attention and i think the trajectory of activism helped lgbt q people say you know what is our time to work and so they it gave them the moment tom to start speaking up as well in addition to this certainly stone always helpful and useful it was not the first activist of it that happened but that contributed it was a momentum and certainly within

lawrence we have an interesting he is free and more and so a lot of dr kurtz students may not be aware of that there was a very large activists community in moments during that time and there was a lot of effort on the part of some of the activists to stir things up raise awareness and not allow the status quo to continue and that gave them momentum to people in the community to start banning to gather there was other i want to mention an interesting that i have that that happened in the late nineteen sixties is called the urban plunge it was airy at it like a weekend experience it was to help people understand the other in quotes to understand what it was like to be have a different life experience and two

of the very kansas city that the lord's people that attended workday in identified just get the time now when to this session and the war really enlightened and excited and they started talking about what we need to do in lawrence we need to move these issues along in lawrence so the momentum had begun and then in nineteen seventy this group began the lawrence gay liberation front was its formal name and it began with some of these forces i just talked about and some an unexpected force the founder of l cio af which us acres it's far easier was a student in social work and one of his projects was chief he decided his final project was going that was to gather wood and the resources that

were available in the region to be girl lawrence kansas city and she interviewed lots of nasa people one of the people who has interviewed was all warrants high school student and after the project was done as soon became too david stout the founder and said soul would even do now when he said putting the human am i going to do now i did my project it's done and done and done and soon got really frustrated and said oh no you can do that we haven't needed you you know from doing your research you need to do something and sold david assured him again he had done this as a project and he was moving fourteen and integrate graduate that didn't satisfy this student who proceeded to put flyers up all over town particularly in places where lgbt people tended to hang out that

said something to the essence of find out more by gay liberation call this number it was david's phone number and and david did some quick thinking when he decided when he discovered this and the first meeting was in his room in our own the place he lived it was one of the communes in the area was called the body shop job was a small turnout despite this interesting introduction but that's as a large scale liberation front started and through the seventies was on the time of the group really i grabbed hold got some traction did some really important work in moving forward to a new policies and practices and also

addressing the culture and some of the tremendous are homophobic attitudes hand are misconceptions that existed so that's why we're focusing on the seventies because it was such an instrumental time fifty one years out is a weeklong celebration of lgbt q activism and laurenson at the university of kansas it kicks off october eighteenth and runs through with all kinds of events going through until october twenty third there's a full list of events taking place on the watkins museum website watkins museum dot org they could maybe just highlight one of the activities are events that's taken place this week oh that's going to be a tough one and somebody had asked me along the way so which is the primary driving program and i have to say there are only equal because they are all equally important

i'm i'm going to answer your question but and a sneaky way so all there are three or four different highlighted areas one is and some of the current challenges to kansas policy which is couldn't be done by c g h an overly who's just tremendous who we'll hear from in just a few minutes yes and that that'll be very enlightening next panel is on the beginnings of lawrence gay liberation front from a founding members and early members and it will be such an eye opener for people who hadn't have no idea these challenges risks and again the triumphs that people encountered our third one is on laurence lesbian community are different forces war in play during that time a lot of lesbians identified first with the feminist movement

and our women's liberation and so we're not just want to looking primarily at sexual orientation but it was certainly important and so that conversation will be very interesting is it is not written anywhere and i've looked and these women are so inspiring i ducked about so dr cady but sir it is going to talk about qom health policy issues during that time which is really critical because it leads into the aids epidemic and what happened so we have so much good stuff that they're all different and they all contribute to a different aspect as someone who has done quite a bit of oral history myself there's one event that really caught my attention and that is fifty one years ago loud as story corps type project in which are asking people to come

forward anne and tell their stories to i believe it's k u journalism students get some what it is you're hoping to do with those stories i am so excited about this project because i think it's the stories that make this experience that makes this history life for people and i was so grateful that the william allen white school of journalism and mass media was willing to take a bow i'm a professor gordon gekko actually playing i took this project on for her advanced level documentary class and they are doing interviews are going to put together a video and we've gotten some great responses bad how we're going to be able to put the final project on this sexual and gender diversity website odd and at some point and it will make

this history alive and real and people can look gathered at any time in the future but how great to have current students involved and they are doing a fabulous job and the thing with dr kathy rose mockery she's the event organizer for fifty one years out celebrating gay liberation history of tay you and laurence there are lots of co sponsors and collaborators in this project just to mention a few a whole center for humanity's the watkins museum of history at the lawrence public library to use office of diversity equity inclusion and belonging kathy what does it mean the has such a broad base of university and community support fifty fifty one years after this warns gay liberation front had a relief fight for recognition i think it's such an important

piece of the events down and i'm glad you asked about it because in the seventies there were some people behind the scenes at higher levels who were supportive of the group they could not be vocal about it but basically there was a lot of animosity and rancor when it came to supporting the group and their efforts are magically supporting league they community in general and so looking now to the numbers of offices and student organizations academic units there were excited to get on board and is more than just left lip service i would say all of those co sponsors have done more work than just put their name on a poster they have been actively involved in supporting creating these offensive into various aspects of it so i think it shows the need for a show is a need

for us to address this in a collaborative way it's not about any one unit anyone units responsibility to address these issues and change the climate it's all of us that need to have a part in that and that impressive list says people are willing to do that dr kathy rose mockery is event court nader for fifty one years out celebrating gay liberation history of play you and laurence october eighteenth to their twenty third you can find their complete list of events at watkins museum dot org petty it's been great to visit with you thank you so much for coming in today i left aka thank you for inviting me