The writings are composed of papers, articles, and correspondence covering a variety of political and social issues. They include correspondence between Coyle and Vicky Smith, a woman with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who was romantically involved with Coyle (1967-1968); an issue of an underground newspaper he published entitled Notes From the Underground (1968); articles from the underground newspaper Hundred Flowers in which he came out as gay (June 25 and July 22, 1971); miscellaneous writings on the war in Vietnam (1965, 1970, 1975); a pamphlet (1975) Coyle published, in which he attacked the politics of Humbert Humphrey, entitled Hubert Humphrey in '76?; notes for a paper examining the collapse of the New Left, entitled "What Ever Happened to the Movement" (1976); and background material, drafts, and manuscript of a paper entitled "Working Papers for North Country Activists: Public Interest Politics and the Need for Democratic Grass Roots Independent Organization" (1977-1978).

As NAM's national office coordinator Coyle kept a large file of material documenting the organization's history from its inception in 1971. NAM was started by a group of West Coast radicals as an attempt to provide discipline and organization to the New Left after the decline of SDS in the late 1960s. The collection documents the NAM Planning Conference held in Chicago (Oct. 1971); a "program conference" held in Davenport, Iowa (Nov. 25-29, 1971); the founding convention (June 1972) that adopted a constitution and conducted several workshops; succeeding annual conventions (1973-1974); meetings of the elected national leadership, the National Interim Committee (NIC); local chapter activity; NAM task forces on racism, economics, the workplace, and welfare; and projects such as a national conference on women and socialism (Fall 1972), a nationally coordinated effort against discrimination at AT&T (1972), an internal education program (1972-1973), and the National Campaign to Impeach Nixon (1973-1974).

Papers (1973-1974) from a variety of left-wing political organizations are also included as are a number of articles that debate the idea of a new political party called the Mass Party of the People. The idea of a new party and the possibility of unifying the Left resulted in joint meetings between NAM, the People's Party, the Socialist Party, USA, and the National Interim Committee for a Mass Party of the People. One of the outcomes of these meetings was the idea of a possible merger between NAM and the People's Party.

Among the chapter activities represented are the people's history project which included the Alive and Trucking Theater's production of the play, The People are a River (1972-1973); the Metropolitan Task Force, which fought for community control of development and conducted a successful campaign to block the construction of a downtown dome (1973); the Praxis school, a socialist education project; and the North Country Peace Campaign (NCPC), which served as a clearinghouse for anti-war information and facilitated local organizing efforts and actions against the war.

Reflecting Coyle's activities as a tenants' rights advocate, including his work as an organizer, paralegal, and negotiator for the East-West Bank Tenants Union during its rent strike (1977-1978) (related audio tape is located in box 19); his participation on the Cedar Riverside Project Area Committee (1981); and his work as a staff member of the Minnesota Tenants Union (1979). The bulk of the papers (1979-1981) relate to Coyle's work with a group he helped found called the Coalition for Affordable Housing (CAH) and primarily document its efforts at passing a comprehensive rent and condominium control ordinance. There is also a large amount of background material related to an earlier attempt to pass a Minneapolis rent control ordinance (1974-1975); various studies of the impact of rent control on available housing (1976, 1978, 1980); mandatory national rent control and a National Conference on Rent Control (Nov. 10-12, 1979); rent control in other cities; and miscellaneous rent control literature.

This section documents a variety of activities that Coyle was involved with after leaving NAM and before his election to the city council. Topics include the North Country Chautauqua, a series of talks and presentations Coyle originated with Marv Davidov and Karl Voss; his work with the Farmer-Labor Association (FLA) and support of the presidential candidacy of Fred Harris (1976); his participation and arrest in an anti-powerline protest in West-Central Minnesota (1978); Coyle's unsuccessful campaigns as an independent candidate for U.S. Senate (1978) (related audio tape located in box 19) and for Minneapolis mayor (1979); his work as an organizer for Minnesotans Against the Downtown Dome (MADD), a statewide coalition opposed to legislation that would enable the construction of a domed stadium (1979-1981); his role as an organizer and communications officer for the Citizens Lobby, a coalition formed to fight budget cuts in the early 1980s (1980-1982); and his plans for a grass roots community development consulting firm called "Hired Gums" and a monthly regional magazine entitled Northern Lights (1980). The last group of papers in this section relates to a project involving the FLA and Hartland Data Coop aimed at increasing the membership of the FLA and mobilizing progressives from the state to support FLA and other progressive candidates through the compilation of a computer database (1981).

Documents the goals, administration, and programs of a monthly speakers' forum. Coyle organized PRT in order to bring progressives together on a regular basis to hear new ideas, discuss strategies for political action, and develop informal networks. The Roundtable featured both national and local figures including Tom Hayden, Tony Bouza, Hazel Henderson, Robert White, Ronald Dellums, Daniel Ellsberg (audio tapes are located in box 18), Morris Udall, and others.

The papers related to Coyle's four aldermanic campaigns (1981, 1983, 1985, 1989). Coyle ran against incumbent Jackie Slater during his first city council campaign and lost by a narrow margin (1981). The following year he worked on Caucus '82, an effort sponsored by the Minnesota Committee for Gay and Lesbian Rights to mobilize gay and lesbian attendance at precinct caucuses. In early 1983 a city-wide coalition was formed called the Neighborhood Priorities Coalition. The coalition was based on a housing, jobs, and community-based development platform and worked to elect city council candidates. With the support of the Coalition, and the gay and lesbian support he secured during Caucus '82, Coyle won his second race for city council (1983). His next two campaigns (1985 and 1989) successfully stressed themes of job creation, community controlled development, affordable housing, crime prevention, and civil and human rights.

Coyle served as chair of the city council's transportation and public works committees and as a member of five other standing committees. He was also chosen as city council vice president (1990). The most prominent issues and organizations represented in the papers include the Urban Revitalization Action Program (URAP) (1986-1988); various neighborhood organizations such as the Whittier Alliance, the Phillips Neighborhood Improvement Association (PNIA), and Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc.; the proposed development of light rail transit (1987-1989); Project for Pride In Living (PPL); the Safety For Everyone Program (SAFE); the homeless and single-room occupancy housing projects; refurbishing the Nicollet Mall (1986-1988); the city's lawsuit with HUD concerning the disposition of Cedar Square West (1987-1988); "Year of the City", a state funding program for the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth (1988-1989); Mayor Donald Fraser's proposals to amend the city charter (1988); the Neiman-Marcus/BCE Development project (1988); the convention center hotel project (1989); a resolution barring the city from retaining the services of the O'Connor & Hannan law firm due to its representation of the ARENA party in El Salvador (1989); recycling and solid waste disposal, including an ordinance to ban plastic food packaging (1988-1991); the Neighborhood Revitalization Program (1990-1991); the management and proliferation of group homes (1984-1989) and Coyle's proposed moratorium on additional community-based residential facilities (1988-1989); the redevelopment of Franklin Avenue and the American Indian Business Development Corporation (AIBDC) (1978-1988); the passage of a domestic partners ordinance (1983-1991) (video tape of hearing located in box 19); Coyle's support of an ordinance opposed by a large segment of the Gay community that regulated the city's bathhouse and adult bookstores in order to prevent the spread of AIDS (1987-1988); opposition to the Hennepin County garbage incinerator (1987-1988); and the proposed expansion of I-35W (1987-1991).

The scrapbooks contain photographs, campaignliterature, correspondence and newspaper clippings documenting Coyle's U.S. Senate Campaign (1978), aldermanic campaigns (1981, 1983, 1989), and first two terms on the Minneapolis City Council.

Topics include his breakfast meetings with gay and lesbian activists (1986-1987); the repeal of the state sodomy statute (1987); the Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council (GLCAC); gay athletes and San Franciso's bid to host the 1996 Olympic games (1988); the Twin Cities Men's Chorus; the annual Gay/Lesbian Festival of Pride; the Northstar Project, a survey conducted by GLCAC to assess the needs of the Twin Cities gay and lesbian community (1990); and international gay/lesbian rights (1990-1991).

Coyle's efforts to make the public aware of a series of 12 to 15 gay murders, to foster cooperation between the police and the gay community, and to encourage Twin Cities homosexuals to launch an anti-violence campaign through the formation of Community United Against Violence (CUAV) are all documented (1984-1990), as is his involvement in the National Conference of Gay/Lesbian Elected and Appointed Officials (1985), including its annual meetings (1985-1990) and a lobbying campaign in Washington D.C. (March 6-7, 1986) attended by ten openly gay elected officials, including Coyle. Other organizations and issues represented include the Human Rights Campaign fund (HRCF), a national gay political action committee; the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's third annual Creating Change Conference, which was held in Minneapolis (Nov. 9-12, 1990); the National March On Washington (1987), which Coyle helped organize; and Coyle's work calling for a third national march on Washington to be held in 1992 (1990-1991).

Organizations and issues represented include prevention measures and AIDS-related discrimination; state and city funding; educational programs and materials; the Minnesota AIDS Project and its AIDS housing program (1986-1991); the death of farm and gay activist Dick Hanson (July-Aug., 1987); the International Lesbian & Gay Health Conference & AIDS Forum (July 20-26, 1988; July 18-22, 1990; July 24-28, 1991); Minneapolis Health Department; Hennepin County AIDS Task Force; testimony of Coyle, Mayor Don Fraser, and others before the task force of the National Commission on AIDS (Jan 4, 1990); an AIDS prevention program for gay Latino men designed by the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) (Feb. 1990); American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and AIDS (1987; June 30, 1988; July-Nov. 1990); the AIDS Action Council; the Minnesota AIDS Funding Consortium (March-April 1989, June 1, 1990; Aug. 1, 1990); The Aliveness Project; and the NAMES Project AIDS memorial quilt, which was displayed in Minneapolis (July 16-17, 1988).

The clippings are almost exclusively from local newspapers and deal primarily with topics related to Coyle's tenure on the city council, gay rights, and AIDS. The two bibliographies were generated through computer searches and consist of a printout comprising of citations to all occurrences of Coyle's name in the Star and Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities between January 1986 and Febuary 1989 and a packet of full text printouts from the Star and Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities and The St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch of articles related to issues Coyle was involved with (1988-1990).

Most of the personal papers are related to Coyle's battle with AIDS (1986-1991), including his daily journal (Oct. 8, 1989-Aug. 22, 1991) which he stated was "for self guidance, dream recording, and expanded creativity." After disclosing his HIV status (April 1991), Coyle released excerpts from the journals (Oct. 1989-July 1990) to Equal Time, which printed them under the title "Coming to Terms: The Coyle Journals" (May 1991). He also released excerpts to the Star and Tribune covering the week during which he publicly revealed his illness (April 21-28, 1991). The original journals and copies of both newspaper articles are included.