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Ginny Vida

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Ginny Vida
Born1939 (age 84–85)
Chicago, Illinois
Occupation(s)Editor, educator, community leader
Known forMedia director, National Gay Task Force (1976-2000)
Notable workOur Right to Love (1978)
AwardsStonewall Book Award (1978)

Virginia E. "Ginny" Vida (born 1939) is an American editor and community leader, best known for editing Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (1978), and as media director of the National Gay Task Force (NGTF) in the 1970s. She was also deputy director of the New York City Commission on the Status of Women, and chair of the Ethics Commission in San Francisco, before she retired in 2004.

Early life and education

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Vida was born in Chicago and raised in Macomb, Illinois,[1] the daughter of Paul Vida and Eleanor O. Vida. Her father was born in Hungary. She had an older brother, Lee (1934–2016), who became an ophthalmologist.[2] She earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Illinois in 1961,[3] and a master's degree in English linguistics from New York University in 1966.[4]

Career

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Vida was a teacher as a young woman, and edited school textbooks.[5] In 1973 and 1974 she was active in the Jean O'Leary-led Lesbian Feminist Liberation, an offshoot of the Gay Activists Alliance.[6][7]

Vida was the media director of the National Gay Task Force from 1976 to 1980.[5][8] She edited the national organization's newsletter, It's Time, and worked for "accurate news coverage and positive portrayals and lesbians and gay men" in film, radio, and television.[9][10][11] She also worked on public education campaigns for the task force,[12] countering the anti-gay activism of Anita Bryant and others.[13] Her efforts persuaded ABC to make A Question of Love, a 1978 television movie starring Jane Alexander and Gena Rowlands as a lesbian couple in a custody dispute with an ex-husband, based on a memoir by Mary Jo Risher.[14]

Vida compiled Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (1978), developing reference articles and extensive lists and reviews of organizations, publications, bars, and social services of interest to lesbians.[5] The book sold well and won awards including the 1978 Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association. An updated and expanded version, The New Our Right to Love, was co-edited by Vida and published in 1996.[15]

In the 1980s and 1990s, she worked in the New York State Division of Human Rights, and was deputy director of the New York City Commission on the Status of Women.[4][16][17] In 1997 Vida became director of the Ethics Commission in San Francisco,[4] responsible for auditing campaigns and advising on city laws involving campaign finance.[18] She retired for health reasons in 2004.[19][20]

Publications

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  • "Statement on Sex and Violence in Television" (1976)[21]
  • "They Don't Want to Know We Exist" (1977)[22]
  • Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (1978)[23]
  • The New Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (1996, with Karol D. Lightner and Tanya Viger)[24]

References

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  1. ^ "College Seniors are Teaching at Bloom". Park Forest Star. May 11, 1961. p. 14. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  2. ^ "Lee Vida Obituary (1934 - 2016)". La Jolla Light, via Legacy.com. August 11, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  3. ^ University of Illinois, Illio (1961 yearbook): 555. via Ancestry
  4. ^ a b c Laird, Cynthia (October 9, 1997). "Virginia Vida named director of SF Ethics Commission". Bay Area Reporter. p. 5. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  5. ^ a b c Dragovich, Debra (August 18, 1978). "Ginny Vida: Editor and Media Pro". Seattle Gay News. p. 13. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Clendinen, Dudley; Nagourney, Adam (July 30, 2013). Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in Ame. Simon and Schuster. p. 167. ISBN 978-1-4767-4071-3.
  7. ^ "Outraged Lesbians Zap NBC". The Advocate (153): 1, 35. December 18, 1974 – via ProQuest.
  8. ^ "Event Program: 7th Annual Creating Change: A National Conference for Gay and Lesbian Organizing and Skills Building". The Portal to Texas History. November 11, 1994. p. 7. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  9. ^ "Valeska is named NGTF Co-Executive Director" (PDF). It's Time. June–July 1979. p. 1. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  10. ^ "Networks Loosen Up". Boca Raton News. September 3, 1976. p. 7. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via Google News.
  11. ^ Mong, Bob (June 19, 1976). "Gays Seek 'Fair, Balanced' Treatment from Media". The Capital Times. p. 17. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Lesbian rights to be program focus". Mount Vernon Argus. March 18, 1979. p. 20. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Johnston, Laurie (June 19, 1977). "Homosexuals Plan Educational Drive". The New York Times. p. 35. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via TimesMachine.
  14. ^ Capsuto, Steven (2000). Alternate channels : the uncensored story of gay and lesbian images on radio and television. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 145–146. ISBN 978-0-345-41243-0 – via Internet Archive.
  15. ^ Vida, Ginny; Lightner, Karol D.; Viger, Tanya, eds. (1996). The new our right to love: a lesbian resource book. New York, N.Y: Touchstone Book. ISBN 978-0-684-80682-2.
  16. ^ Ross, Michael E. (February 21, 1986). "Courses and Data for Women". The New York Times. pp. A18. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via TimesMachine.
  17. ^ Engels, Mary (December 24, 1986). "Women look at future". Daily News. p. 203. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Advice Letter – June 22, 2000 – Esther Marks – Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance (Includes City Attorney Concurrence & District Attorney's Dissent)". San Francisco Ethics Commission. June 22, 2000. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  19. ^ Gordon, Rachel (March 4, 2004). "San Francisco: Ethics panel chief takes medical leave". CT Insider. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  20. ^ Hampton, Adriel (March 4, 2004). "Ethics chief search begins". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 4. Retrieved May 30, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Ridinger, Robert B. (February 25, 2014). Speaking for Our Lives: Historic Speeches and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights (1892-2000). Routledge. pp. 261–265. ISBN 978-1-317-76634-6.
  22. ^ Vida, Ginny. "They Don't Want to Know We Exist", WGA West Newsletter (February 1977): 14-15. Statement presented before the subcommittee on telecommunications of the United States House of Representatives, at a hearing on broadcast license renewal; via ProQuest
  23. ^ Our right to love : a lesbian resource book. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. 1978. ISBN 978-0-13-644401-5.
  24. ^ Vida, Ginny; Lightner, Karol D.; Viger, Tanya (1996). The new our right to love : a lesbian resource book. New York, N.Y.: Touchstone Book. ISBN 978-0-684-80682-2.
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