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Title
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[Letter from Edra Bogle to Alan Weiser and Michael Gonzalez, November 14, 1983]
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Identifier
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MSS380_letter_19831114
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Type
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Letters
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Manuscripts
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Date
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11/14/1983
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Description
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Letter from Edra Bogle to Alan James Weiser and Michael J. Gonzalez regarding the creation of the group Gays of Angelo State. Bogle sent them a number of things, including generalized pamphlets about coming out, specialized pamphlets about AIDS and education, speaker's bureau material, and task force material. She also explains the current status of TGLTF and gives advice about networking and state politics.
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Originally formed as the Texas Gay Task Force, the TGLTF was the first statewide gay/lesbian organization in Texas. Organized in 1973 for the purpose of planning annual conferences (until 1990), the TGLTF served as the parent organization for the Lesbian/Gay Democrats of Texas and the Lesbian/Gay Rights Advocates. CCd to Floyd Chapman.
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Subject
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Texas Gay / Lesbian Task Force
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Bogle, Edra
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Weiser, Alan James
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Gonzalez, Michael J
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Chapman, Floyd
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Format
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2 pgs.
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Language
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en
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Rights
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Materials may not be used without permission. For more information, contact us at (940) 898-3751 or womenshistory@twu.edu.
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Is Part Of
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Texas Gay / Lesbian Task Force Records, 1970s-1991.
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Accrual Method
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Gift
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Provenance
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Bogle, Edra
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extracted text
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Texas Gay/Lesbian Taskforce
[redacted]
November 14, 1983
Alan James Weiser
Michael J. Gonzalez
Gays of Angelo State
[redacted]
Dear Alan and Michael,
We are so pleased to hear about your organization of a group in San Angelo, and are including a number of pamphlets and publications which we hope you will find useful. They are of four kinds:
1) Those you may want to make available to your members and to other interested persons. We sent 20 copies of these. If you find them useful, we can provide bulk copies cheaply, or to save on postage and hassle can provide clear masters so they can be printed locally. (At our local print shop they cost about 6¢ each.) These include the “About Coming Out,” “Answers to a Parent’s Questions,” and “Straight Talk,” which provide a great deal of information.
2) More specialized publications, which you will want to put into your file to have available when needed. Sometimes I sent several copies, sometimes fewer. You may want to run off duplicates of some of these, too. We have other materials on specialized subjects such as employment, AIDS, education, etc.--if you have a special need, let us know.
3) Material relating to a speaker’s bureau. You didn’t ask about this, but I was getting it together because of requests from College Station and Lubbock, so thought I might as well include a copy, since your group will probably be asked to provide speakers for classes as soon as there is publicity about the group.
4) Material about the Task Force: a number of copies of our latest News, which I hope you will distribute to people who would be interested, a few back issues with information of use, and some descriptive sheets, including the newly-revised Bylaws.
I don’t know how familiar you may be with the state-wide gay and lesbian organizations in Texas. They have discussed a cooperative brochure describing themselves, but since it’s not available yet, I’ll summarize the picture as it exists now. There are six state-wide groups whose interests and coverage vary greatly, and which have been careful to organize as not to compete with each other.
TGLTF, the oldest one, has reorganized in the past few years as an exclusively educational and charitable groups with tax-deductible status.The October News has a list of some projects we are working on; the News itself is another, making information about local issues and groups available state-wide and carrying analytical articles of interest to Texans, some of which are later reprinted separately.
The political scene is covered by two groups, Lesbian/Gay Rights Advocates (see Feb. News) which hires the lobbyist when the legislature is in session, and plans a program of state-wide political education for the primaries; and the Lesbian/Gay Democrats of Texas (see Feb. News) which works within the party and has been responsible for a resolution to repeal 21.06 at the state Democratic convention in 1980,
hospitality rooms at the conventions, and over 100 more or less openly gay delegates or alternates at the 1982 covention. There is no Republican group at present, although there has been talk of one being organized.
TGLSOC (see Aug. News) is a group you would be particularly interested in, since it is for student support organizations–the address in the article is still good to contact, if you haven’t already. In addition, The Texas Human Rights Foundation is a group of lawyers (who were responsible for handling Don Baker’s suit against 21.06) and the Rural Coalition is just forming to serve people on farms and in small towns (see Oct. News). There has been talk about a business coalition too, but so far nothing has come of that; and some of an organization of gay telephone lines.
It’s too bad you are so far away from Denton–both myself and Tom Cain, the present Task Force chair, live here. You’re in the Western region; our male board member form Lubbock has not been very active; we hope to have a woman from there soon since one has expressed interest and maybe your groups would like to send representatives to each other. Maybe, too, Tom and/or I could get there some time on a vacation or long weekend, though I suppose your groups takes pretty much the same school holidays that NTSU (where we both are) does, so no one would be around when we are free. Maybe though we can work something out.
I’ve put your group in the mailing list for the News, and would appreciate our receiving any newsletter your group is putting out. Please do keep in touch–I’m sorry to be so slow in replying, but when everything is volunteer there’s always something pushed back till one can do it right. TGLTF would like to become a means of organizations such as yours scattered around the state keeping in touch, but we are just working on the mechanics now. Some possibilities for the future include:
