Pickett, Harold Edward, 1947-1988.

Harold Edward Pickett (1947-1988) was a gay rights activist, journalist, poet, and editor.

Pickett contributed poems and articles to gay newspapers and magazines in various U.S. cities. In 1980 he founded New York City News, a news magazine for the gay and lesbian community, and was editor/publisher until it ceased publication in 1985.

Harold Edward Pickett was born 20 January 1947 in Glasgow, KY, the oldest child of Cleston and Margie (Denson) Pickett. Pickett had three younger siblings--Douglas, Lyndell, and Valerie (Perkins) - all of whom survived him and settled near Greensburg, KY. Pickett's father was a Methodist minister who moved the family to several Kentucky towns before permanently settling in Greensburg in the late 1960's.

Pickett was aware that he was gay by the age of twelve, at which age he was also attracted to Catholicism; he maintained an active interest in religion for the rest of his life. During 1964-1965 Pickett lived with relatives in Ypsilanti, MI so that he could attend the Catholic St. John the Baptist High School, from which he graduated in 1965. On his return to Kentucky, Pickett's parents inadvertently learned of his homosexuality and prevailed upon him to commit himself to a psychiatric hospital for a week. Pickett then attended Lindsey Wilson Junior College in Columbia, KY for two years but received no degree. Drawn to San Francisco in 1967, Pickett participated in the countercultural community and considered entering a Catholic order before enrolling at San Francisco City College and San Francisco State College in January 1969.

By early 1970 Pickett was back in Greensburg, but later that year he moved permanently to New York City, renting an apartment at 206 Thompson St. in Soho where he lived until his death. Pickett found work as a market opinion researcher and remained in that occupation for the rest of his life. He apparently worked for several survey research firms, including the National Survey Research Group, Inc. In July 1972 Pickett re-entered college, first as a non-degree and later as a matriculating student at Hunter College of the City University of New York, majoring in Philosophy. It is unclear whether he ever graduated.

It was at Hunter College that Pickett found a direction for his life. At first deeply interested in poetry, Pickett served as president of the Poetry Club. Although he had been partially "out" for years, Pickett formally came out in a Hunter College religion class in 1973. Henceforth his energies were primarily devoted to advancing the cause of gay rights through his poetry, political activism, and journalism.

Pickett's poetry, which he seems to have begun writing during the early 1970's, was primarily centered on gay themes. In 1974 Pickett self-published Triptych, a mimeographed volume of verse. Throughout the 1970's Pickett sought, with only limited success, to publish other poems, first in Hunter College student newspapers and later in various gay publications such as Gay Clone and Fag Rag . Several of his poems were also published in the anthology, Gay Bards (New York: X-Press, 1979). Pickett also encouraged other aspiring gay poets, especially Randy Smallwood who, like Pickett, was a native Kentuckian. By 1981, however, Pickett had set poetry aside entirely for journalism.

While at Hunter College Pickett was also introduced to gay activism. Encouraged by his instructors, Pickett tailored his coursework toward gay themes; proposed a curriculum for what he claimed would be Hunter's first gay studies major (it is not clear whether his proposal was accepted); and conducted at least two gay attitude surveys among Hunter students. As president of the Hunter Gay Men's Alliance and a student government member, Pickett began actively to agitate for gay rights at Hunter and within New York City. Other New York gay and lesbian activists - particularly Joyce Hunter, Andy Humm, and David Thorstad - drew Pickett into other gay rights organizations, among them the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Gay Activists' Alliance, Gay Anarchists (which Pickett helped found), and the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

Though Pickett frequently participated in protests and demonstrations for gay rights, his primary contribution to the movement was as a journalist. Pickett discovered his journalistic talents at Hunter College, where he contributed articles to student newspapers and honed his skills writing press releases for gay organizations. From 1977 to 1980 Pickett served as New York correspondent for the influential Gay Community News (Boston), contributing dozens of articles and a regular column, "New York, New York," in which he chronicled the gay activism of his New York friends and the groups to which they belonged. During the same period Pickett also contributed frequently to other gay newspapers and magazines, including Alternate (San Francisco), Alternative (Syracuse, NY), Gotham (New York), and Michael's Thing (New York), earning a significant second income in the process.

In 1980 Pickett founded the biweekly New York City News, "the news magazine for the [New York City] gay and lesbian community." Henceforth he wrote almost exclusively for it in his role as editor/publisher. The New York City News provided Pickett and his friends with a regular forum for disseminating news and comment on local and national gay rights issues and Greenwich Village community concerns. The New York City News ceased publication with issue no. 105 (Sept. 6, 1985).

In 1972 Pickett met James B. Ferguson, an aspiring actor and author who wrote and starred in the successful Off-Broadway musical, Wonderful Lives (1977) and published a best-selling novel, Fortunes (New York: Dell, 1982). Their relationship continued up to the time of Pickett's death. Ferguson shared Pickett's political activism; contributed frequently to New York City News ; drew Pickett into Werner Erhard's EST movement, whose seminars Pickett frequently attended during the later 1970s; and stimulated Pickett's interest in gay fiction, theater, and film. In 1983 Pickett was administrative coordinator of the 5th New York Gay Film Festival.

Pickett was diagnosed as having AIDS in 1985 and died in New York on 31 March 1988.