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 erotically charged female friendships to lesbian political activism and community building 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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The Ari Kane collection at the Schlesinger was originally processed in 2010. At the time the archivist chose the “he” pronoun to refer to Kane. This was the pronoun choice on Kane’s website at the time. Kane was also provided a copy of the finding aid for final review before publishing. The department recently reviewed the finding aid description and determined that in this particular case not choosing a specific pronoun in the description was probably a more responsible and ethical approach for someone who identifies as both male and female. The finding aid could benefit from more transparency around pronoun use and description revision in general. In February 2023 we contacted Ari Kane to review some of the descriptive revisions we were thinking about and received the green light to go forward with updating the finding aid. The processing information note in the finding aid explains the changes that were made:
In February 2023, Laura Peimer revised this finding aid to bring it into alignment with Schlesinger Library’s inclusive and reparative language guidelines. In the narrative sections of the finding aid she replaced the terms transgendered and transgenderist with transgender and she replaced male-to-female and female-to-male transsexuals with trans women and trans men. She retained any original terms that are part of the names of organizations, publications, or within original folder titles for historical context. She also added additional subject headings.
When referring to Ari Kane in the narrative sections of the finding aid, she replaced the "he" pronoun with "Kane." While Kane uses both "he" and "she" pronouns, we made this change so as not to preference one identity over another.
She updated additional text as well, including changing present to past tense for programs no longer available, removing the dash in crossdressing, and revising the description of Fantasia Fair. A previous version of this finding aid has been maintained for transparency around the descriptive process. Please contact the Schlesinger Library for details.
EXAMPLE 2: Soloway family
When the Soloway family papers were donated to the Schlesinger Library, Faith Soloway used the pronoun “she” and was referred to as thus in the catalog record and in the first iteration of the finding aid. In summer 2021, Faith Soloway began to use “they” pronouns, and when the finding aid was next updated, the text was checked and revised, removing all use of “she” (through a request from curator to the archivist accessioning the new addenda to the collection).
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In the Jennifer Finney Boylan papers, the description in the biographical note and the scope and content note uses Boylan’s pronoun, “she.” However, within the collection there are folder entries for photographs of Boylan before she physically transitioned from male to female, which uses her former name. While Boylan reviewed the finding aid prior to its publication, in cases like this it would be beneficial for the archivist to specifically point out to the creator about these particular situations related to naming. In April 2023, in order to bring the language in this finding aid into alignment with Schlesinger Library's inclusive and reparative language guidelines, we contacted Boylan about this discrepancy and then updated the photo folder titles with the name "Jennifer Finney Boylan." As with other finding aids that have been edited for inclusive language, the original version of this finding aid was maintained for transparency around the descriptive process.
EXAMPLE 3: Caitlyn Jenner portrait in Bettye Lane Photographs
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 deadnaming 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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Digital Transgender Archive Style Guide
Metadata Best Practices for Trans and Gender Diverse Resources
Best Practices for Queer Metadata
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