Pennsylvania Roots of Trailblazing Lesbian Activist Rita Mae Brown

By
Matthew Jackson
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Rita Mae Brown during a book talk in 2005. (Photo: Bryan Costin/Flickr)

Called the “first openly lesbian writer to make it into the mainstream” and, in the early 1970s, “the most famous openly gay person in America,” feminist author Rita Mae Brown has Pennsylvania roots. 

She was born in Hanover and soon was taken to a Pittsburgh orphanage before being adopted by relatives and raised in York. Born to a single-mother, horse farm worker Juliann Young, Rita was adopted by relatives Julia and Ralph Brown, who were prominent in York County Republican politics. 

From Brown’s 1999 memoir, it appears that the Browns may have lived in Hanover before York. 

They lived, at least for a time, at 520 East Hillcrest Road in York. According to Wikipedia, Brown’s family moved when she was 11 from York to Florida.

Regarding her early years, there’s also an intriguing quote attributed to Brown, apparently about downtown York’s Martin Library: “When I first got my library card, my life began.”

If there were a circle of excellence, a pantheon of celebrity or popular writers who were born or raised in, or have connections to the Susquehanna Valley, feminist author Rita Mae Brown would be in it.

Also, if there was a ring of honor of civil and human rights trailblazers who were born or raised in the Susquehanna Valley, Brown would be in it.

Some are working hard and collaboratively to make our history braver, more thorough and more inclusive.

That’s welcome news because Brown’s achievements are legion and jaw-dropping, and people here and everywhere deserve to learn about her and her works. 

Twenty-four years before comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television, Rita Mae Brown was making all kinds of good trouble and beautiful noise.

The author of more than 60 novels, seven screenplays and works of non-fiction, and an Emmy-nominated screenwriter and poet, Brown is the winner of the Lee Lynch Classic Book Award and the winner of the Lambda Literary Pioneer Award for her groundbreaking, semi-autobiographical first novel, “Rubyfruit Jungle” (1973). 

Feminist legend Gloria Steinem says of it: “The rare work of fiction that has changed real life… If you don’t yet know Molly Bolt — or Rita Mae Brown, who created her— I urge you to read and thank them both.”

Rubyfruit Jungle has been banned by multiple schools for its sexual content.

“This literary milestone,” according to ritamaebrownbooks.com, “continues to resonate with its message about being true to yourself and, against the odds, living happily ever after.”

A hero for the work she had done for AIDS awareness, women’s rights, gay rights and civil rights, Brown also holds two PhDs and is a skilled equestrian and Master of Foxhounds. 

Brown’s life is an adventure, struggle, drama, courage, resilience and triumph. She was expelled from college for supporting Black civil rights, was homeless in New York, sparred with early feminist icon Betty Friedan, was thrown out of the National Organization of Women for supporting lesbian rights as feminist rights, and lived with partner Martina Navratilova, the famous women’s tennis champion and icon. 

Brown’s fascinating, colorful, improbable, and rollicking life is worthy of a movie. 

Or two. 

Movie or no movie, Brown’s story certainly is worthy of our public history. 

Cultural Lapses and Empathy Deficits 

Despite her literary achievements and her Hanover and York County roots, not to mention her work for human rights and dignity, there was never a mention of Brown in my circles, classrooms or church as I grew up in Hanover. 

This, even though I devoured  every newspaper I could get my hands on and asked a lot of — too many, I was often told! — questions. 

To this day, there’s nary a mention of Brown, as far as I can tell, in the public square, in local or regional museums, or in other venues. 

The exceptions are our wonderful libraries, where Brown’s books can be checked out, and journalists and historians like James McClure, the dean of York County history, who’s been game to write about Brown and other challenging and supposedly taboo topics. 

Further, WitnessingYork.com, an enterprise by McClure and Dr. Jamie Noerpel that I’m proud to be a partner of, knows no fear.

On a whole, though, the Susquehanna Valley has cultural lapses and empathy deficits, to put it kindly.

As just one high-profile example, in 2024, the new democratically elected school board of Hanover’s Southwestern School District, my alma mater, is upending the district’s gender identity-accommodating bathroom policy to cater to irrational fear (transphobia, homophobia), otherism, and bigotry.

To such provincial thinking, denying LGBTQIA+ identities and rights in the classroom and public square is from the same crude, cruel playbook as denying and burying LGBTQIA+ history.

That’s a further reason to be inclusive and vigilant. For denying the history of “the others” equals real hostility, hurt, discrimination, trauma and abuse. 

And after all, “the others” are our neighbors, cousins, sisters and brothers.

They are us. 

How we show and interpret history is our community identity, is our brand. 

How we do history is our book censorship policy. 

How we do history is human relations. 

In many ways, how we do history is our community. 

So how are we going to tell it? 

York County Pride Trail Memory Initiative 

In addition to Brown connections, in collaboration with the Rainbow Rose Center and the LGBT Center of Central PA, a York County Pride Trail Team is tracking down LGBTQIA+ historically and culturally significant sites throughout York County and beyond for digital and hard copy maps. 

Thank you Reverend Guy Dunham and community advocate Ryan Supler, bright lights and trusted cohorts, for joining me in this journey. 

You can contribute, too, and we welcome you. 

If you have solid information to share and can help to “out” — metaphorically speaking, or shine a light on intriguing, “in-the-closet” histories of York County resilience, courage, culture and creativity for current and future generations, please let us know. We aim to be brave, thorough, loving, inclusive and embracing. 

Also, who else would you nominate for inclusion in rings of honor for York County Human Rights Courage, Literary Achievement, and YoCo Pride? 

YoCo and the Susquehanna Valley continue to unearth and polish buried, neglected or nearly lost histories and human rights vignettes. 

In this era of Memory Boom, aided and abetted by more at-your-fingertip information and databases than you can shake an iPhone at, it’s a great time to learn, unlearn, stretch, pivot, then learn much more. 

Together, let’s keep exploring, salvaging and sharing for memory quests and empathy adventures to continue. 

More on Rita Mae Brown: 

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