Overview
Schlesinger collections document the lived realities and activism of women, as well as changing societal ideas and laws around sexuality and gender. Since its earliest days the library has actively collected papers documenting lesbian lives, from 19th century diaries of female friendships to lesbian activism and community in the late 20th century. More recently our collecting focus has encompassed the many expressions of sexuality and gender within the LGBTQ+ communities. In light of this, we want to evaluate and reassess our descriptive practices – both historically and currently -- in order to ensure that how we identify and describe the LGBTQ+ individuals and communities in our collections is both respectful and accurate.
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Gender and sexual identities can be nuanced, unique, and fluid – sometimes changing for individuals over time. This can be reflected in terminology. “Words
“Words related to queer and trans identities especially constitute continuous battlegrounds as terms are created, discarded, reclaimed, disputed, etc. The accepted terms today may be offensive tomorrow (in fact, some might contest them now).” Digital Transgender Archive Style Guide
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Item level cataloging of photographs or visual materials can bring up additional questions regarding naming. The photographer Bettye Lane photographed Bruce Jenner in 1977, almost 38 years before Bruce had transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner. Lane's caption on the slide includes Jenner's pre-transition name, "Bruce Jenner 1/10/77." In order to help us determine whether we should retain "Bruce Jenner" in the description for the catalog record, we did research on whether Caitlyn had ever addressed dead naming and her former identity. Since Caitlyn Jenner is a known personality we were able to find online an interview in The Guardian (May 8, 2017) where she states she does not mind being referred to as Bruce, “'I had a life for 65 years. OK?' Besides which, 'I liked Bruce. He was a good person. He did a lot in his life. Oh, ‘he didn’t even exist’. Yes he did exist!...'" Given this information, we kept Lane's caption "Bruce Jenner" and added: "[pre-transition name, as captioned by Bettye Lane in 1977]; 1-10-1977."
When to describe
There are situations where a collection doesn’t contain directly related content about the creator’s sexual or gender identity but the individual does identify under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. For example, The description of the Angela Davis papers does not address her sexuality since the collection does not contain materials directly related to it. Davis has publicly identified as lesbian since 1997. Is identity description always warranted in the creator's biography or in LCSH in order to ensure LGBTQ+ visibility? This is a question we are currently exploring.
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Rely on free-text description in the biographical note. Come up with language to describe why terms are being used and add context, especially if keeping historical terms for accuracy but which now may be outdated.
“We “We do not presume to know a subject’s identity better than they do and therefore try to use chosen names, pronouns, and terms whenever possible. This remains true even for subjects who identify with terms which might today seem offensive, outdated, or imprecise.” Digital Transgender Archive Style Guide
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- Understand limitations of controlled vocabulary and go beyond it if necessary:.
Explore other controlled vocabularies that are more rooted in the community. For example, Homosaurus is now widely used in the library and archives field. You can go beyond Library of Congress Subject Headings keeping in mind that other vocabularies, even those based in the LGBTQ+ communities (like Homosaurus) may still be insufficient.
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