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Remembering Kay Lahusen, Revolutionary Photojournalist

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

In the 1960s, the American Psychiatric Association still considered homosexuality a mental health disorder, and most newsstands didn't even have LGBTQ media.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

So Kay Lahusen went door to door with the publication she edited, The Ladder.

(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "MAKING GAY HISTORY")

KAY LAHUSEN: This was a labor of love. You got to realize you're talking to two fanatics here.

SHAPIRO: That's Lahusen on the podcast "Making Gay History." The other fanatic was Barbara Gittings, her longtime partner and fellow activist.

CHANG: They marched openly in early gay rights protests on the East Coast. They met through the first lesbian rights group in the U.S. Here's historian Alexis Coe.

ALEXIS COE: It was just immediate, you know? There's a story where, I guess, you know, Gittings thought that she was a cute little package, is what Kay told me. And they just started to date.

SHAPIRO: Barbara Gittings died in 2007, and this week, so did Kay Lahusen. But as one of the earliest openly gay photojournalists, Lahusen left behind a visual legacy.

CHANG: At those early protests, she captured signs with slogans like, gay is good and homo is healthy. She also photographed families.

COE: She loved normal scenes. She really wanted to show people who were, you know, families - two women raising children, two men raising children, people embracing, you know, experiencing joy, laughter, heartbreak.

SHAPIRO: In the early '70s, Lahusen urged the APA to include a gay psychiatrist for a panel on same-sex love. One spoke with a disguise and voice distortion. And in 1973, the APA removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

CHANG: For Lahusen, her activism was simply her life.

COE: This wasn't a movement for them; it was a lifestyle. And she often said, I had so much fun.

CHANG: Kay Lahusen died Wednesday. She was 91 years old. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.