Jan Gay

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Jan Gay (born Helen Reitman; 1902–1960) was a German-born American journalist, author, activist, and researcher who studied gays and lesbians in the 1930s in Europe and the United States. She visited Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science and later helped start serious research on sexuality in the US.

She was also an early figure in nudism in America, writing the essay On Going Naked (1932) and scripting a nudism documentary. She wrote several children’s books with her partner, illustrator Zhenya Gay. Her life story gained attention in the 2023 novel Blackouts by Justin Torres, which draws on her work.

Jan Reitman was born on February 14, 1902, in Leipzig, Germany, to Ben Reitman, an American doctor and anarchist, and May Schwartz, a musician. Her father left before she was born, and she grew up with relatives in the Midwest. She changed her name to Jan Gay in 1927; some say she chose “Gay” to nod to her lesbian identity.

Her early career included reporting for the Chicago Herald-Examiner in 1922 after studying at Northwestern University, and working for the National Railways of Mexico as secretary and translator in the late 1920s. There she met Eleanor Byrnes, who became her longtime partner and later used the name Zhenya Gay. They published The Shire Colt, a set of children’s books.

In Europe, she became interested in nudism and wrote On Going Naked (1932), with photographs and drawings by Zhenya. This work helped inspire a nudism documentary for which she wrote the script.

Gay opened a nudist resort, the Out-of-Doors Club, in Highland, New York, and was called “the leader of nudism in New York.”

In the 1920s she began studying homosexuality in depth. After visiting Hirschfeld’s Institute, she launched a large interview-based study with support from medical colleagues, including Robert Latou Dickinson. Dickinson helped fund and validate the project, and he formed a separate committee to pursue this work, while Gay’s study grew to include both lesbians and gay men.

Researchers George W. Henry and Thomas Painter joined the effort. They conducted hundreds of interviews about participants’ lives and their experiences with sexuality, and they also performed medical examinations. The findings challenged some stereotypes, such as the idea that gay men and lesbians would show clear physical differences from their biological sex. However, as the project progressed, Gay’s role diminished, and the final publication framed homosexuality as a social problem to be treated, a view pushed by the medical team.

Despite this, Gay’s work is seen as important for LGBTQ activism because the personal stories helped many people feel less alone.

Jan Gay was openly lesbian and worked for years with Zhenya Gay. They separated in the 1940s. In the 1940s she also had a relationship with dancer and activist Franziska Boas. Gay moved to California and died in 1960 at age 58.

Her contributions to Sex Variants and her broader life have influenced later writing about queer history, including the novel Blackouts, which honors her and seeks to correct how her work has been overlooked.