Scope and Content Note
The papers of Lilli Marie Vincenz (1937-2023) span the years 1879-2013, with the bulk of the material dating from 1953 to 2013. While documenting Vincenz's work for gay civil rights and her efforts to support and empower gay men and women, they also chronicle the larger gay and lesbian civil rights movement. The papers are grouped by type of material into correspondence and journals; Community for Creative Self-Development file; films; interviews; speeches, writings and engagements; subject file; academic file; miscellany; and oversize. They are primarily written in English, but some German and French is present.
Among the correspondence and journals is a grouping of personal correspondence that includes letters received from friends and family and some letters written by Vincenz. The correspondence between Lilli Vincenz and her parents is written in German. Special correspondence is comprised of letters relating to Vincenz's work in the gay community, her educational outreach on topics relating to homosexuality, her films, and her role as a pioneer in the gay rights movement. Similar correspondence can be found in files relating to her films and speaking engagements. The journals section is comprised of loose pages of notes from various periods in the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the most descriptive entries date from 1961 when Vincenz traveled to Provincetown, Massachussets, and visited a gay bar for the first time. The entries from the 1970s are dream journals.
Files relating to the Community for Creative Self-Development, an empowerment group for gay men and women that Lilli Vincenz founded and directed with her partner, Nancy Ruth Davis, are some of the most comprehensive. Documents include meeting minutes, event flyers, and materials relating to conferences, retreats, courses, and workshops with titles such as "Lovefreeing: A New Approach to Wholeness," "Loneliness and You," and "Shedding Light on the Shadow Side of Relationships," and covering topics such as gay dating, gay history, homophobia, and psychic development.
Vincenz made two 16-millimeter films that recorded early gay rights events. The Second Largest Minority documents the "Reminder Day Picket" at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1968, and Gay and Proudrecords the first Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in New York, held on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Files concerning these films pertain to the rentals of the film by various groups and the use of the footage in numerous documentaries on aspects of the gay rights movement.
Lilli Vincenz's thoughts and experiences are recorded in interviews, in the texts and remarks given at meetings and receptions, and in speeches with titles such as "Visibility, Empowerment, Liberation, and Self Actualization," and "The Love that Celebrates its Name." Among her writings are typescripts of the column she wrote for GAY newspaper in New York. In the 1960s she often wrote under the pseudonym Lily Hansen. Her efforts to advocate for homosexuals and educate the public through guest lectures at universities, television and radio appearances, and participation in panel discussions at meetings and public events are also represented. Among this material is a transcript of a panel discussion on the "Lifestyle of Non-Patient Homosexual" conducted at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in 1971.
Subject files document the work and concerns of early homophile organizations and the empowerment groups founded by Vincenz. Others feature press coverage of homosexuality and the experiences of gays and lesbians spanning roughly fifty years. Files concerning pioneers in the gay rights movement include those relating to Frank Kameny and the Kameny for Congress Campaign that Vincenz helped launch in 1971. Files relating to the Gay Women's Open House, which Vincenz held in her home to provide a social gathering place for lesbians every Wednesday from 1971 to 1977, include advertisements, lists of discussion topics, and notes from attendees. Among the materials relating to the Whitman-Walker Clinic Empowerment Group for People Living with AIDS, founded by Vincenz and Nancy Ruth Davis in the mid-1980s, are notes on interviews with new members and issues of their newsletter written by and for people living with AIDS.
The academic file contains material relating to Lilli Vincenz's education and training from high school through post-graduate continuing education. Among the material relating to her studies in psychology and human development are questionnaires completed as part of a survey she conducted in 1972 on the attitudes and aspirations of lesbians and research for her study, "Personality Profiles of Psychologically Adjusted Lesbian and Heterosexual Women".
Among a group of miscellany are curriculum vitae and other biographical information on Lilli Vincenz and family papers relating to her parents and extended family in Romania. The latter includes documents pertaining to her efforts to assist a cousin trying to immigrate to the United States from Romania.