Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Coleman, Thomas F. (Thomas Frank) and Kohorn, Jay M.
- Abstract:
- Criminal court records, civil court records, correspondence, law review articles, clippings, reports, state bills and laws, notes, and other professional papers of Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn documenting their careers from 1972-1991. Coleman and Kohorn were attorneys specializing in defending sexual civil liberties, primarily in the LGBT community.
- Extent:
- 12 Linear Feet 12 archive boxes
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Box/folder #, or item name] Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn Papers, Coll2014-031, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Criminal court records, civil court records, correspondence, law review articles, clippings, reports, state bills and laws, notes, meeting minutes, grant applications, biographical information, and other professional papers of Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn documenting their work as sexual civil liberty attorneys and advocates from 1972-1991. The records document Coleman's and Kohorn's legal work, publications, participation in government and non-profit commissions and committees, and involvement in sexual civil liberty issues on behalf of the LGBT community.
- Biographical / historical:
-
"Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn see themselves as participants in and shapers of what they call the most important constitutional movement of this century: The growth of the right to privacy and personal autonomy." -quote from "Portrait of a Sexual Civil Liberties Office," box 10, folder 21.
Thomas F. Coleman graduated from the Loyola University School of Law in Los Angeles in 1973. In 1974, Coleman became publisher of the Sexual Law Reporter, a joint venture of the National Committee on Sexual Civil Liberties (NCSCL) and the American Civil Liberties Union to publish analyses on statutory and case law in the field of sexuality. Jay M. Kohorn joined the venture as associate editor in 1979. Coleman and Kohorn served as co-directors for NCSCL and continued to work on issues related to the Sexual Law Reporter through 1982.
Coleman and Kohorn were based in California, but worked nationally on legal cases that affected sexual civil liberties, whether as litigators, consultants, or advocates submitting friend-of-the-court briefs. They fought against the discriminatory use of loitering, solicitation, and lewd and lascivious conduct laws against gay and lesbian people. They fought against discrimination in policing, criminal laws, employment, military service, marriage equality, and family law. They fought the mandated closure of San Francisco's bathhouses in 1984 and California Proposition 6, The LaRouche Initiative, in 1986. They gave seminars, lectures, and special assistance on sexual civil liberty legal issues to college classes, gay and lesbian groups, service providers, special interest groups, public defenders, and prosecutors.
Coleman was director of the Commission on Personal Privacy and authored the commission’s final report (Kohorn wrote the executive summary) in 1982. Coleman and Kohorn served as consultants to the Los Angeles City Council's Task Force on Family Diversity, with Coleman authoring and Kohorn editing the final report. Coleman served as a member of the Attorney General of California's Commission on Racial, Ethnic, Religious and Minority Violence; as a member of the California Legislature's Joint Select Task Force on the Changing Family; and as chairperson of the City Attorney of Los Angeles' Consumer Task Force on Marital Status Discrimination. Kohorn was a founder of the Lambda Lawyers Roundtable, a national collection of lesbian and gay activists who sought to legalize private consensual sexual conduct. Both have published extensively and been honored for their work on behalf of sexual civil liberties and the gay and lesbian community. Coleman's book The Domino Effect details over four decades of his, and to a lesser extent Kohorn's, legal, lobbying, and special project work.
- Acquisition information:
- Deed of gift from Thomas F. Coleman is dated December 3, 2014. Deed of gift from Jay Kohorn and Zeke Zeidler is dated August 16, 2009.
- Processing information:
-
Previously in boxes 103-3, 103-4, 103-5, 103-11, 103-19, 103-137, 103-191F, 103-219, 103-293, 104-50, 104-51, and 104-99. Collection processed by Kyle Morgan, 2014.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged in the following series:
Series 1. Court records, 1954-1991
Series 2. Administrative records, 1932-1991, 2011
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. The credit line reads "Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn, equal rights advocates."
- Preferred citation:
-
[Box/folder #, or item name] Thomas F. Coleman and Jay M. Kohorn Papers, Coll2014-031, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California
- Location of this collection:
-
909 West Adams BoulevardLos Angeles, CA 90007, US
- Contact:
- (213) 821-2771