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Finding Aid

Biography

Jean Boess Huffey, a school teacher, farm wife, and gay rights activist, was born to Delia and George Boess in rural Hawkeye, Iowa, in 1932. Jean Boess was raised on a farm and attended country schools. She received a teaching certificate from the Iowa State Teacher’s College (now the University of Northern Iowa). In 1953, she married George Huffey, and, over the next ten years, the couple had six children. The Huffey family lived on a Century Farm in northeast Iowa near Waterville, Iowa. Jean Huffey was active in many organizations, including her Lutheran church, Old East Paint Church. After Huffey learned that one of her children was gay in the mid-1980s, she began to educate herself about homosexuality. The Huffeys became active in both Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and Lutherans Concerned, a group that advocates civil and social justice within the church. A major focus of Huffey’s work has been to end discrimination against gays and lesbians within the Lutheran (and other Protestant) churches. In March 1996, Jean Huffey founded a chapter of PFLAG in Waukon, Iowa. Later, she joined Soulforce, an interfaith group working to end discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgendered individuals within religious organizations. In 2001, Huffey attended the Lutheran Churchwide Assembly in Indianapolis where she and other Soulforce members engaged in direct action protests against the Lutheran church’s policy requiring gay clergy to take a vow of celibacy.

Scope and Content Note

The Jean Huffey papers date from 1989 to 2006 and measure 10 linear inches. The bulk of the papers consists of materials related to Huffey’s work to secure greater social and legal rights for homosexuals, and especially to raise awareness within the Lutheran church. The papers include brochures distributed by PFLAG, the American Psychological Association, and Lutherans Concerned; correspondence concerning gay issues between Jean Huffey and various people, including one folder of correspondence with elected officials; letters to the editor, many written by Huffey; and newspaper clippings concerning gay issues. Also included are the March 1995 issue of Lutheran Woman Today, which reprinted an article by columnist Deb Price about Jean Huffey’s struggle to come to terms with her child’s homosexuality, and the June issue, in which readers responded to the Price article.

Box List

Box 1
Biographical information (photograph)
Affirmation ceremony, 1998 (photographs)
Allamakee Community Schools, 1998
Boycott, 1990
Brochures (3 folders)
Civil rights bills in US Senate, 1989-2005
Community Connections, 2006
Conference materials, 1991-2000
Correspondence, 1988-1999 (3 folders)
Des Moines public schools, 1995
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA)

Assembly in Indianapolis, 2001 (2 folders) (photographs)
Bishops, 1987-1996
Correspondence, 1988-1993
Lutheran Northwestern Theological Seminary, 1989
Lutheran Social Service of Iowa, 1995
Lutheran Woman Today, 1995
Lutherans Concerned, 1989-1990
Meetings and conferences, 1996

Box 2

Old East Paint Lutheran Church, 1993
Ordination of Anita Hill, 2001
Pastors’ Forum, 1993
Printed materials, 1987-1994
Resolution on study of ministry, 1993

Gays in military, 1993
Hate sign, 1998 (photograph)
Iowa House Joint Resolution 1, 2005 [defining marriage as a contract between a man and a woman]
Letters to the editor and newspaper clippings, 1992-2001
March on Washington, 1993 (2 folders)
Newspaper clippings, 1989-1998
Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), 1987-1998
Pat and Michael Maloney, 1996
Speeches, 1990-2000
Waukon school newspaper, 2001

For more information about this collection contact the Iowa Women's Archives.

Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City IA 52242.
Please send comments to: lib-women@uiowa.edu
URL: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa 

Page created December 2007.