Rytilahti Defense Dissertation
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Taking the Moral Ground: Protestants, Feminists, and Gay Equality in North Carolina, 1970-1980 by Stephanie Rytilahti Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Adriane Lentz-Smith, Supervisor ___________________________ Jacquelyn Dowd Hall ___________________________ Pete Sigal ___________________________ Timothy Tyson ___________________________ Nancy MacLean Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 ABSTRACT Taking the Moral Ground Protestants, Feminists, and Gay Equality in North Carolina, 1970-1980 by Stephanie Rytilahti Department of History Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Adriane Lentz-Smith, Supervisor ___________________________ Jacquelyn Dowd Hall ___________________________ Peter Sigal ___________________________ Timothy Tyson ___________________________ Nancy MacLean Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 Copyright by Stephanie Rytilahti 2018 Abstract “Taking the Moral Ground” examines the relationship between Protestantism and the movements for feminist and gay equality in North Carolina during the 1970s and 1980s to answer two central questions: How did a group of white heterosexual clergy, moderate mainliners, and African American ministers in central North Carolina become the spokespersons for feminist and gay liberation in the 1970s and 1980s? What did the theoretical frameworks of organized religion offer that made these types of unlikely alliances possible? To answer these questions “Taking the Moral Ground” begins with an exploration of the religious values that framed the upbringing, activist career, and ministry of Pauli Murray, a native of North Carolina and the first African American woman ordained by the Episcopal Church. Emphasizing the importance of the black freedom struggle and a universal understanding of human rights to Murray’s ministry, this dissertation moves on to explore how the key tenets she championed—universal love and justice—played out as religious feminists fought for women’s equality on a platform of intersectional social justice across North Carolina in the 1970s. Against the backdrop of a burgeoning movement for women’s liberation and the rise of the New Right, women melded the philosophies of the social gospel with feminist practices such as consciousness raising. They fought for stronger female representation at Duke Divinity School, iv professional opportunities for women clergy, and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. In the 1980s, gay Christians and moderate clergy built upon the work undertaken by previous decades of feminist activism as they formed alliances with anti-racist groups and agitated for the acceptance of the LGBTQ community in local churches while simultaneously drawing on Christian values to support citizenship rights for gays and lesbians. While organized religion provided obstacles to transplanting this vision of religiously-driven inclusivity onto campaigns for women’s rights and gay liberation, it also offered institutional frameworks, rituals of belonging, and a certain theological flexibility that most strictly secular movements lacked. In this way, many of the religious coalitions forged during the 1970s and 1980s in North Carolina exceeded the effectiveness and organizational breadth of strictly secular groups across the state and nation. v Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................ iv Contents ............................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ....................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. vii Introduction: A Long Moral Movement .................................................................. 1 Historiography ..................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 1: “God, Help the Church!”: Pauli Murray and Universal Human Rights in the Episcopal Church ...................................................................................... 42 Chapter 2: The Dilemma of Christian Feminism ............................................... 122 Chapter 3: “Who Will Protect the Family?”: Making Feminism Respectable During the ERA Debate in North Carolina .................................................................... 207 Chapter 4: Sodom on the Eno: Moderate Protestants Encounter Gay Pride .... 295 Chapter 5: Protestants in Exile: How Gay Men and Lesbians Changed Religious Perspectives on Sexuality ................................................................................. 381 Conclusion: The Bridges Built by Pauli Murray ................................................. 464 Works Cited ....................................................................................................... 474 Biography .......................................................................................................... 495 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Sam Ervin rallies the crowd at an anti-ERA rally at Dorton Arena in 1977 as Schlafly sits beside him. Raleigh News and Observer. ...................... 259 Figure 2: ERA Activists in 1981 on the state capitol grounds. Raleigh News and Observer. ........................................................................................................... 274 Figure 3: Image of 1986 Gay Pride Parade in Durham, N.C. Photo Courtesy of Durham Morning Herald, June 20, 1986, p. 1A. ................................................ 297 Figure 4: Mayor Wib Gulley, Photo Courtesy of The Front Page, August 19, 1986. ................................................................................................................. 330 Figure 5: Reverend Terry Hooper protests Gulley’s Proclamation at a Public Hearing. Photo Courtesy of Durham Morning Herald, June 27, 1986. .............. 344 Figure 6: Mercer protesting the 1986 gay pride parade, The Pink Triangle 1986. ........................................................................................................................... 417 Acknowledgements As is the case with most research projects, the idea for this dissertation began with an undeveloped inquiry that slowly blossomed into a full-fledged historical investigation with the support and guidance from multiple individuals and communities. First and foremost, I received unwavering enthusiasm and encouragement from the clergy, lay persons, and activists I interviewed for this project. On more than one occasion, people invited me into their homes and took time out of their busy schedules to have a conversation with me about the particulars of their own experiences with organized religion—both positive and vii negative—and offered up additional leads, personal papers, or tips on how to deepen my analysis. Reverend Jimmy Creech, in particular, lent me boxes of personal papers, as did Reverend Wanda Floyd. Without the insight and generous time commitments of these persons, this project would lack much of the texture and in-depth accounts of how religious communities functioned on the inside. The academic community at Duke University also provided me with the support and encouragement to keep this project going and to deepen the trajectory of its interventions and historical analyses. My advisor, Adriane Lentz- Smith, carefully combed through multiple drafts of each chapter, offering insight, clarity, and the push I needed to dig deeper and avoid superficial generalizations and easy narratives. Her concise editorial hand and breadth of knowledge on a range of subjects greatly enhanced the narrative flow of this dissertation and the precision of its historical claims. The rest of my committee jumped in at a challenging mid-point in the dissertation, offering the feedback I needed to strengthen existing chapters and develop a plan for the ones still unwritten. My cohort and the members of the Duke’s Women’s Studies Colloquium also offered helpful feedback during multiple stages of the writing process and offered critiques and useful suggestions for producing increasingly polished drafts. David Romine, Amanda Hughett, and Paige Welch, in particular, offered salient advice and revisions that greatly aided me in forging ahead to the final product. Other scholars from UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Wisconsin-Madison viii also provided critical scholarly advice and community support as I wrapped up my project. A series of generous grants provided the funds and time I needed to travel to the archives during the beginning of this project and focus solely on writing and revising near the end. Duke’s History Department offered six years of funding in addition to travel and conference grants. The Department of Gender and Women’s Studies funded my research for several years and also provided multiple grants for archival research and conference presentations. The White House Council on Women and Girls of Color provided two consecutive years of summer funding, a grant which covered childcare and made it possible to carve out the space to