The Stage

1970s: Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminism (cont’d)

Fund for Human Dignity

The National Gay Task Force (NGTF) created the Gay Media Task Force in 1972 to serve as a resource organization for network television programming as it addressed gay issues. NGTF established the Fund for Human Dignity in 1974 to educate the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual community and the general public about “the role of homosexual men and women in our society.”

The Fund became the first gay organization to receive tax-exempt status. In its tax-exempt application, the Fund for Human Dignity gave details about its planned activities, including which books and reports its staff intended to distribute. In the July 1977 letter granting the exemption, the IRS wrote, “You have indicated that you will not advocate or actively seek to convince individuals that they should or should not be homosexuals,” and:

You hope to benefit the community as a whole through the elimination of prejudice, the lessening of neighborhood tensions, and an increase in the useful participation of homosexual individuals in the life of the community.

Application for recognition of exemption under 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. 1974. Fund for Human Dignity Records. Human Sexuality Collection.
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Attorney Stanley S. Weithorn. Letter to the IRS supplying additional information related to the application. December 1975. Fund for Human Dignity Records. Human Sexuality Collection.
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Internal Revenue Service. Letter to Fund for Human Dignity. July 27, 1977. Fund for Human Dignity Records. Human Sexuality Collection.
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