Back when I was a dykeling organising kissing booth fundraisers I had no idea the concept was birthed by two hellraiser lesbians! I was not surprised to discover they were librarians, do not mess with librarians, or with lesbians named Barbara for that matter.
The two STUNT QUEENS above are Barbara Gittings and Isabel Miller. Their table was getting zero professional interest at the 1971 American Library Association Conference in Dallas, so they decided to pull a stunt not at all connected to libraries! And that was a gay kissing booth. The very first-ever gay kissing booth in the world!! In Barbara’s own words:
“What happened was, we decided to bypass books and show gay love, live! So we called it, “Hug a Homosexual.” And we stripped it down to the bare gray curtains and we had a sign up, “Men Only” at one end. And “Women Only” at the other. And we stationed ourselves, all four of us, under the signs, to give free, mind you, free, same-sex kisses and hugs. Well, let me tell you, the aisles were jammed, but nobody came into the booth!
People were rather intimidated. Yes, the lights were on and all these people jammed in the aisles, craning their necks to see the action, but nobody wanted to take part. So we did the action. We kissed and embraced each other for two hours. We handed out copies of gay bibliography. We called out encouragement. We kissed and hugged each other some more. That really put us on the map.
So there we were on the six o’clock news and the library people were livid! They said, “We have all these famous authors here and all they cover is this kissing booth!”
They put us on the six o’clock news. They put us again on the eleven o’clock news and again the next morning. This was news! It was wonderful. Really, our spirits soared because we… You know, really, the booth also had a message that was useful in any arena. And that is that gay people are not willing anymore to be subject to a special double standard. We should have the same right to express our affection publicly as heterosexuals have. No more, but no less.
For 1971, it was bold. It was revolutionary. We thought it was marvelous. It was really, it was a thrill. And the reaction. Oh! They wrote about us in the library press for the next six months!”
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