Jeanne Barnett
{{Short description|American activist (1930–2003)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jeanne Barnett
| image =
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| caption =
| birth_name = Velma Jean Barnett
| birth_date = May 28, 1930
| birth_place = Waynoka, Oklahoma, U.S.
| death_date = October 1, 2003 (age 73)
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| other_names =
| occupation = Activist, state official
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) = Ellie Charlton
| relatives =
}}
Jeanne Barnett (May 28, 1930 – October 1, 2003) was an American activist and a California state employment official. She was active in the United Methodist Church for the inclusion of LGBT members and clergy, and her 1999 "holy union ceremony" in Sacramento was a well-publicized protest against denominational policies.
Early life and education
Barnett was born in Waynoka, Oklahoma, the daughter of Ernest I. Barnett and Faye Ann Hudson Barnett. She graduated from the University of Tulsa in 1952, where she played varsity basketball and earned a bachelor's degree in music.{{Cite web |title=Jeanne Barnett |url=https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/profiles/jeanne-barnett |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=LGBTQ Religious Archives Network}}
Career
Barnett worked in California's Employment Development Department from 1959 to 1991; her career culminated as Chief of the Employment Data and Research Division, based in Sacramento.
Barnett was active in United Methodist Church work at the local, regional, and national levels. She was involved in National Affirmation: United Methodists for LGBT Concerns, and the California-Nevada Reconciling Conference Committee, both bodies working for greater inclusion of LGBT members and clergy in the Methodist community. She was the only lesbian member of the denomination's national United Methodist Committee to Study Homosexuality, in 1998.{{Cite news |date=1989-02-18 |title=United Methodist committee begins to study homosexuality |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-bangor-daily-news-united-methodist-c/149669164/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |work=The Bangor Daily News |pages=69 |via=Newspapers.com}}
In 1999, Barnett and her longtime partner Ellie Charlton were married in a union ceremony at the Sacramento Convention Center,{{Cite news |last=Ostling |first=Richard N. |date=1999-01-15 |title=Same-sex blessings have United Methodist Church aboil |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-recorder-same-sex-blessings-ha/149669286/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |work=The Times Recorder |pages=13 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |last=Ness |first=Carol |date=1999-01-11 |title=Pastors back lesbian blessing |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-pastors-back/149669463/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |work=The San Francisco Examiner |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} with more than a hundred Methodist ministers officiating together, as a show of "ecclesiastical disobedience"[https://books.google.com/books?id=PWIEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Jeanne+Barnett%22+Sacramento&pg=PA97 "Where Others Stand"] Out (November 1999): 97. against the denomination's ban on ordained clergy performing same-sex weddings.{{Cite book |last1=Rowe |first1=Kenneth E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8YG5S3Soa8C&dq=%22Jeanne+Barnett%22+Sacramento&pg=PT565 |title=The Methodist Experience in America Volume I: A History |last2=Richey |first2=Dr Russell E. |last3=Schmidt |first3=Jean Miller |date=2010-08-01 |publisher=Abingdon Press |isbn=978-1-4267-1937-0 |language=en}} The event was widely publicized, and covered in the national news media,Lattin, Don. [https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/marriage-of-convictions-methodist-ministers-2980012.php "Marriage of Convictions; Methodist ministers plan to defy church ruling by officiating en masse at lesbians' wedding"] SF Gate (November 9, 1998).{{Cite news|last=Sanchez |first=Rene |date=2024-01-09 |title=At Gay Wedding, Methodists Take a Vow Against Church Ban |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/01/17/at-gay-wedding-methodists-take-a-vow-against-church-ban/962f6685-36a7-467e-9ae4-3c3185485716/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}{{Cite web |last=Stammer |first=Larry B. |date=1999-01-16 |title=Defying Their Church's Stance on Gays |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jan-16-me-64009-story.html |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} the LGBT press, and in the Christian press.{{Cite web |last=Lindelof |first=Bill |date=1999-03-01 |title=Lesbian 'Blessing' Rekindles Tensions |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1999/march1/9t317a.html |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Christianity Today |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Cagney |first=Mary |date=1998-12-07 |title=Same-Sex Ceremony Leads to Charge |url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1998/december7/8te18a.html |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Christianity Today |language=en}}
Personal life
Barnett and Ellie Charlton became life partners in the early 1980s, and married in a religious ceremony in 1999.[https://www.citizen-times.com/obituaries/act097986 "Eleanor (Ellie) Louise Charlton"] Asheville Citizen-Times (December 6, 2021). Barnett had a stroke in 1995, and she died in 2003, at the age of 73, from a heart attack.{{Cite web |date=October 10, 2003 |title=Velma Barnett Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sacbee/name/velma-barnett-obituary?id=14760240 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Sacramento Bee, via Legacy.com}} A large collection of Barnett's papers are housed in the Drew University Methodist Library,{{Cite web |last1=Powers |first1=Jeanne Audrey |last2=Fado |first2=Donald |last3=Dell |first3=Gregory |last4=Talbert |first4=Melvin George |title=Guide to the Velma Jean (Jeanne) Barnett Personal Papers |url=http://catalog.gcah.org/publicdata/gcah4402.htm |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=
United Methodist Archives and History Center, General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church}} with smaller collections in the Center for Sacramento History{{Cite web |title=Jeanne Barnett and Ellie Charlton papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8sx6kzt/dsc/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Online Archive of California}} and at the GLBT Historical Society of Northern California. In 2004, she was honored posthumously at a reunion event marking what would have been her fifth wedding anniversary.{{Cite news |last=Garza |first=Jennifer |date=2004-01-10 |title=A Call to Remember |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-a-call-to-rememberje/149669653/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |work=The Sacramento Bee |pages=E1, [https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-reunion-clergy-to-at/149669800/ E10] |via=Newspapers.com}}
References
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Category:University of Tulsa alumni
Category:Activists from California
Category:People from Woods County, Oklahoma