'''Karla Jay''' (née le études féminines à l'Université Pace. Pionnière des études LGBT (comme Lillian Faderman), elle a publié de nombreux ouvrages.

Née '''Karla Jayne Berlin''' à juive conservatrice, elle suit les cours du Berkeley Institute, une école privée maintenant appelée Berkeley Carroll School. Au Barnard College, elle étudie le français et reçoit son diplôme en 1968, année où elle manifeste auprès des étudiants de l'Université Columbia.

Elle participe à plusieurs groupes et associations de féministes lesbiennes dès 1969 avec les ''Redstockings'', puis au sein du Gay Liberation Front (GLF) après les émeutes de Stonewall en 1969. Elle a aussi participé à l'association Lavender Menace en réaction à des propos lesbophobes dans la communauté féministe. 

Elle a en particulier encouragé l'expression et la diffusion des textes et théories lesbiennes, et rendu compte des efforts des jeunes gays et lesbiennes à devenir visibles et à s'affirmer dans la société. 

'''Karla Jay''' (born English and the director of the Women's Studies program at Pace University. A pioneer in the field of lesbian and gay studies, she is widely published.

Jay was born '''Karla Jayne Berlin''' in private girls' school in Brooklyn now called the French, and graduated in 1968 after having taken part in the student demonstrations at Columbia University.

While she shared many of the goals of the radical left-wing of the late 1960s, Jay was uncomfortable with the male-supremacist behavior of many of the movement’s leaders. In 1969, she became a member of Redstockings. At around the same time she began using the name Karla Jay to reflect her feminist principles.

When activists founded the openly lesbian, was an early member, and became an active participant, balancing attendance at meetings with working and attending graduate school at New York University, majoring in comparative literature. She was one of the few women actively involved in the early gay rights movement on both coasts.<ref name="glbtq"></ref>

At Pace University's 10th Annual Dyson Distinguished Achievement Awards, that took place April 6, 2006, Karla Jay was honored with the Distinguished Faculty Award.