Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Access Restrictions

Resource list in Series I restricted until 2020.

Preferred Citation

Guy Kinman papers, Collection # M 335, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Biographical / Historical

Guy M. Kinman, Jr., son of a World War I veteran and Army officer, attended seminary after college. He then ministered to United Presbyterian Church congregations in Pennsylvania and Minnesota before serving as a chaplain in the United States Air Force. By 1957 he began to phase himself out of the ministry and honorably resigned in 1959. He married in 1962 but divorced ten years later.

Around 1980, Kinman who now worked as a personnel administrator, became interested and intricately involved in the gay and lesbian movement in Richmond. In 1983, a year after he retired, Kinman took the position of president of the Richmond, Virginia Gay and Lesbian Alliance, the first statewide network of lesbians and gays. While in this position, Kinman, inspired by a similar act in Lynchburg and Roanoke, Virginia, raised funds to purchase advertisements on billboards throughout the Richmond area. The signs read, "Someone you know is gay... Maybe someone you love" and gave Kinman's phone number. The ad campaign attracted local and national attention. Kinman continues to live in the Richmond area.

Scope and Contents

Papers, 1984-1993, of Guy M. Kinman, Jr., of Richmond, Virginia, consisting of correspondence, clippings, notes, and a paper written by Scott Barksdale on Guy Kinman titled "Guy Kinman: Leadership in the Gay and Lesbian Movement." Material concerns lesbian and gay rights issues both locally and nationally during the period 1984-1993. Correspondence principally exchanged between Kinman and national, state and local political leaders including Governor Gerald Baliles, then state senator Douglas Wilder, Thomas Bliley, and John Warner concerning gay rights issues. Includes letters concerning debate over gays in the military. There is also an invitation, January 1986, to Kinman for the Gubernatorial Inaugural Ball.

Arrangement

Arranged into four series: I. Correspondence, 1985-1986, 1993. II. Scholarship, 1993. III. Clippings, 1984-1993 and n.d. IV. Notes, ca. 1985-ca. 1993.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Gay activists -- Virginia -- Richmond
• Gay liberation movement -- Virginia -- Richmond.
• Kinman, Guy M. (Guy Malcolm), 1917-
• Kinman, Guy M. (Guy Malcolm), 1917- -- Archives