“Lesbian pulp fiction refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel (often conflated with pulp magazinefiction) with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 60s by many of the same paperback publishing houses that other genres of fiction including Westerns, Romances, and Detective Fiction. Because very little other literature was available for and about lesbians at this time, quite often these books were the only reference people (lesbian and otherwise) had for modeling what lesbians were.
Stephanie Foote, from the University of Illinois commented on the importance of lesbian pulp novels to the lesbian identity prior to feminism: “Pulps have been understood as signs of a secret history of readers, and they have been valued because they have been read. The more they are read, the more they are valued, and the more they are read, the closer the relationship between the very act of circulation and reading and the construction of a lesbian community becomes…Characters use the reading of novels as a way to understand that they are not alone.”[1] Writer Donna Allegra explained why she purchased them in saying, “No matter how embarrassed and ashamed I felt when I went to the cash register to buy these books, it was absolutely necessary for me to have them. I needed them the way I needed food and shelter for survival.”
Dorothy Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s. Throughout that time she was the only woman working in the field.
She left Paramount in 1932 to begin work as an independent director for several of the studios. The films launched the careers of many actresses, including Katherine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, Sylvia Sidney and Lucille Ball. In 1936, Arzner became the first woman to join the newly formed Directors Guild of America.
Dorothy Arzner was a lesbian, and well known in the Hollywood community though little attention was paid to it publicity. She cultivated a masculine look in her clothes and appearance.
She had been linked romantically with a number of actresses including Joan Crawford,Clara Bow, and Billie Burke, but lived much of her life with her companion, choreographer Marion Morgan.
History generally speaks of the Stonewall Inn Riots as the first queer riot and turning point for LGBTQ liberation but before June 1969, two other riots broke out years before and some 3,000 miles away: The 1959 riot at Cooper’s Donuts in Los Angeles and a 1966 riot at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco.
Though knowledge of both has faded over the years, they provide an important illustration of where trans folk, queens and sexual outlaws figure into the modern LGBT rights movement and what led them to finally stand up to abuse and discrimination.
In the ’50s and ’60s, Los Angeles cops made a habit of screwing with queers: They would raided gay bars, marching the queers out in a line and arresting anyone whose perceived gender didn’t match what was on their ID. Occasionally, they’d even single out a few lucky victims for special attention in the form of insults and beatings. Entrapment was common: Attractively dressed vice cops would cruise gay bars, bathrooms and hook-up spots, pick up tricks and arrest them as soon their target leaned in for a kiss. In other cases, plainclothes cops would wait outside of gay hangouts, trail two men as they walked home and burst into their residence to catch them in the act.
As bad as gay men had it, trans people had it worse: With laws against cross-dressing on the books in California, police kept an eye out for them entering or leaving gay bars—any excuse to raid and shut the place down. (Many gay hangouts rejected trans folk for this very reason.)
Many in the trans community couldn’t get decent jobs (hell, they still can’t) and some resorted to hustling, giving the whole community the reputation of being prostitutes. The media often conflated homosexuals with cross-dressers, drag queens and trans people, making gay men and lesbians resent trans visibility even more.
So what better place to kick back than Cooper’s Donuts, an all-night eatery on Main Street in downtown L.A.? Smack dab between two gay bars—Harold’s and the Waldorf—Cooper’s become a popular late-night hangout for trans folk, butch queens, street hustlers and their johns.
Two cops entered the donut shop that night, ostensibly checking ID, and arbitrarily picked up two hustlers, two queens, and a young man just cruising and led them out. As the cops packed the back of the squad car, one of the men objected, shouting that the car was illegally crowded. While the two cops switched around to force him in, the others scattered out of the car.
From the donut shop, everyone poured out. The crowd was fed up with the police harassment and on this night they fought back, hurling donuts, coffee cups and trash at the police. The police, facing this barrage of [pastries] and porcelain, fled into their car calling for backup.
Soon, the street was bustling with disobedience. People spilled out in to the streets, dancing on cars, lighting fires, and generally reeking havoc. The police return with backup and a number of rioters are beaten and arrested. They also closed the street off for a day.
The Cooper’s Donut riot often gets confused with the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot some years later: There were similar political circumstances leading up both riots. And like Cooper’s, Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district was a popular all-night hangout for trans people (called “hair fairies” at the time), hustlers and assorted sexual renegades.
And both stories involve coffee cups.
In August 1966, a cafeteria worker called the police when some transgender customers at Compton’s became unruly. When a police officer attempted to arrest one trans woman, she threw a cup of hot coffee in his face. Within moments, dishes were broken, furniture was thrown, the restaurant’s windows were smashed and a nearby newsstand was burned down.
Trans people, hustlers and disenfranchised gay locals picketed the cafeteria the following night, when the restaurant’s windows were smashed again. Unlike the Stonewall riots, the situation at Compton’s was somewhat organized—many picketers were members of militant queer groups like the Street Orphans and Vanguard.
Also, the city’s response was quite different from the reaction in New York: A network of social, mental and medical support services was established, followed in 1968 by the creation of the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, overseen by a member of the SFPD. Directors Victor Silverman and Susan Stryker’s recount the historic two-day incident in their 2005 film, Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.
Harriet Sohmers Zwerling at the Black Mountain College. Zwerling was a figure model, an expat, a beat poet, teacher and all-around hero of the Bohemian lifestyle.
I bought this book on a whim because I saw it on tumblr and I am so happy I did. It is an anthology of Lesbians writing about how important cats are to them, published in 1991. It contains exactly the kind of earnest and wonderful content one would expect of such a book
All cats mentioned are named and they have names like Amazonia, Wicca and Paulose Lautrec
There is a chapter that is just a very earnest letter exchange between the staff of a lesbian book store and a patron who is allergic to cats, that ends with both sides trying to bridge the gap between humans with allergies and the right of a cat to live where she chooses (the cat gets brushed daily as part of the compromise)
There is a chapter written by an ex-nun who says that her three cats (Mabby, Annie and Buber) taught her how to resist the patriarchal pressure to obey.
The following quote is 100% serious and unironic, “I am aware that patriarchal society gives the lesbians in our household life-and-death power over the cats. I don’t like that but I continue to keep cats in my home because the alternative is worse”
The two author photos on the back have them with their cats.
IM SO HAPPY
This is so awesome. And so early-90s-lesbian I am having flashbacks.
Cora Latz and Etta Perkins wedding ceremony. 1973. Cora Latz and Etta Perkins Photographs. GLBT Historical Society
ONE Completes CLIR-Supported Project with GLBT Historical Society
May 4, 2015
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries has recently completed a collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society to process 111 collections of primarily California-based LGBTQ pioneers and organizations. Funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), the Out West project included the digitization of over 400 photographs and the development of a dynamic website showcasing the collections and images, accessible here.
“The atmosphere in the Hollywood lesbian community began to change in the late 1920s and early 1930s. This change was a reflection of three important developments: (1) the increased adoption by the general public of the morbidification of sexual relations between women promoted by some sexologists; (2) the rise of the studio system in Hollywood; and (3) the onset of economic problems connected with the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. The effect of the heterosexual backlash and the rise of the companionate marriage in the mid- to late 1920s was to push women who loved women further into the closet. The rise of the studio system meant that, were these women ever to venture from that closet and be caught in an embarrassing situation in public, the news media would not print the story. Hard economic times made these women vulnerable to the demands of the studio bosses who protected them—vulnerable enough, for example, to agree to date or even marry a man in order to appear heterosexual when they actually were not. Hollywood had become, in effect, a company town.
Many lesbians and bisexual women in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, especially those from Europe, gathered at the home of Berthold (1885-1953) and Salka Viertel (1889-1978). The Viertels were German émigrés who had come to Hollywood in 1928 to work in the film industry. Like Salka, most of the women who gathered at her home were “Gillette Blades”—that is, their sexuality ‘cut both ways.’ Some American-born actresses also fit into this category of actual or apparent bisexuality, while others were lesbians who adhered to the older model of the Boston marriage and lived with their lovers in what was purportedly a platonic relationship.
Following World War II, and with the rise of the Cold War in the late 1940s, the situation of Hollywood lesbians once again underwent a paradigm shift. After Communists, homosexuals were the favorite targets of witch-hunting politicians and bureaucrats, especially those of the House Un-American Activities (HUAC). At this same time, scandal magazines began to print articles that openly identified homosexual stars as such. The tabloid Confidential was directly responsible for the end of Lizabeth Scott’s (1922-2015) career in motion pictures when it accused her in print of ‘unnatural’ sexual activity. Many of the lesbians and bisexual women who were married began spending more time with their spouses, and many who were unmarried rushed to the alter. Some of the homosexuals in Hollywood reacted to this climate of fear by becoming reactionary in their politics and cooperating with those carrying out the persecutions. Barbara Stanwyck (1907-1990) and her ‘beard’ husband (a spouse who is taken by a women who engages in homosexual behavior primarily to help disguise her lesbian activities) Robert Taylor (1911-1969) became archconservatives after World War II. Taylor, who was also gay, was the only actor to ‘name names’ in front of HUAC. Salka Viertel was blacklisted and left the country. The climate of fear and paranoia among Hollywood homosexuals was to last well into the early 1960s.“
-Excerpt from Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures by Bonnie Zimmerman and George Haggerty
“In the 1920s, the sexologist Sigmund Freud clearly demarcated the modern view of lesbians in Western culture. Freud argues that lesbians behave ‘promiscuously and aren’t capable of a grown-up romantic relationship.’ In his article "The Sexual Aberrations,” he describes lesbians as women who suffer from a 'childhood trauma’ and are incapable of any further development. Freud’s theories quickly became well-known beyond the medical community; his theories influenced other sexologists who finally 'classified lesbianism as a disorder.’ Ultimately, this lead to the widespread conclusion in American society that lesbianism was, indeed, a mental illness. Freudian psychoanalysis as well as the Post Freudians’ influence drastically 'changed people’s perceptions of female “romantic relationships” from a state of near harmlessness to the “unnatural.” From this, mainstream America became more and more 'suspicious of love between women,“ and a cultural climate was created that 'sought to eliminate any images that might be perceived as condoning such perverse behavior.’”
-FromLiving on the Edge - Gay and Lesbian Representation in 'Hollywood’s Motion Picture Productions’ and Its Impact on the American Spectatorship by Anonym
“Some actresses such as the much loved Spring Byington didn’t bother with covering up their true manner; Byington openly admitted her relationship with the character actress Marjorie Main, who said of her (Main’s) famous character, Ma Kettle: ‘She was the real man in the house.’ ”
“Margaret Lindsay, who traveled around the country with lover Janet Gaynor and had comedienne Mary McCarty as a long-time lover, could not get parts in big-time movies despite her exceptional beauty because she refused "to play the game,” though she was romantically linked [by studio publicity department] to Dick Powell [stricly heterosexual] and dated [strictly homosexuals] Liberace and Cesar Romero with every assurance that they would not even ask for a goodnight kiss.“
-FromBroken Face In The Mirror: Crooks and Fallen Stars That Look Very Much Like Us by David Hernandez
“After World War I (1914-1918), sexual emancipation swept across France, despite the fact that French women were denied the right to vote and saw the imposition, in 1920, of a law curbing abortion and the distribution of birth-control information. The success of Victor Margueritte’s La Garçonne (The Bachelor Girl [1922]), which sold 300,000 copies within a year, reveals how greatly attitudes had changed in regard to women’s sexual freedom. Indeed, this novel portrayed the lesbian as the true liberated woman for the first time, linking economic independence, sexual liberty, and equality with men. Margueritte lost his membership in the Legion of Honor, while feminists, horrified by the "debauchery” and “vice” in his work, refused to support him. Thus, despite the relaxing of moral restrictions after the war, the loss of practically an entire male generation caused the government of the Third Republic, for obvious reasons, to reinforce its control over women and procreation. Women, including feminists, did not protest against the restrictions imposed on them. The accepted social norms allowed married women to engage in limited political activism; single women joined trade unions; and lesbians and liberated heterosexuals enjoyed access to cultural circles. Lesbians continued to have a real visibility within the cultural realm, as international artists inscribed lesbianism within the avant-garde.“
-Excerpt from Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures by Bonnie Zimmerman
Wu Zao (or Wu Tsao) is considered one of the great female poets of China, and one of the greatest lesbian poets of all time. Very little of her work has been translated into English, but the most beautiful translations are the handful by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung (the above being the best of the bunch, IMO).
Born in 1799, Wu Zao was the child of a merchant, and married to a merchant (in an arranged marriage, naturally). Both relationships are believed to have been unhappy. There were no literati in either family, and no one knows how she learned to read, write, play music and paint, since women of the merchant class were rarely taught these skills. A common dictum in the era was “A woman without talent is a virtuous one.” She basically said, “Fuck that noise,” and became a productive and talented poet, playwright and composer; one of the few female writers of the period. She used her writing to express her longing to break away from a traditional view of women’s roles, including an opera about a woman who cross-dresses and paints her own self-portrait, while lamenting her inability to use her talents because she is a woman and the gender roles of the era are stupid.
Her work was highly praised by poets and scholars, and her songs were sung all over China. She hobnobbed with other great artists of the age, both male and female. In her middle years she retreated from the world and became a Taoist priestess. (Or a Buddhist one, depending on who you ask). She died in 1863.
It’s clear from her poetry that she had sexual and romantic relationships with women, but apart from the short biography by Rexroth and Chung in their book Women Poets of China, it’s impossible to find a biography in English that does more than hint at her lesbianism. According to them, she had many female friends and lovers during her life, and wrote erotic poems to several courtesans, including this one. After reading it, I like to imagine her and Ch'ing Lin hanging out in her bedroom, painting each each other’s eyebrows and making out, like some kind of 19th century Chinese version of a sexy high school sleepover.
[Translation from Women Poets of China by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung; biographical information primarily from Women Poets of China, The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry andThe Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women].
Um, wow, this poem is an ABSOLUTE GEM.
Just wanted to add that one of the major reasons why the dictum “a woman without talent is a virtuous one” first appeared in 17th century China was due to the unprecedented flowering and increased publication and dissemination of women’s writing and a major rise in literacy among gentry women of the time. Combined with the poetic and artistic talents of the many women depicted in the classic A Dream of Red Mansions, published in 1791, who were explicitly stated to be inspired by the author Cao Xueqin’s female relatives and friends, I think Chinese women of the more privileged classes were definitely taking a serious interest in literary pursuits.
Men couldn’t take it, basically, and this misogynistic aphorism reflected patriarchy’s anxiety more than the state of women’s education. Basically, Wu Zao was joined by more noteworthy and paradigm-shifting women writers and artists saying “fuck that noise” than at any other time in Chinese history.
[One should also note, that the vast majority of the non-gentry population of the time, both men and women, were illiterate in the Classical Chinese reserved for poetry and politics.]
Historian Dorothy Ko’s article “Pursuing Talent and Virtue: Education and Women’s Culture in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century China” gives a fascinating overview of how these women viewed their own morality and education.
Thank you, this is a such a great addition to this post! I really appreciate the extra information about the period.
It’s a myth that all lesbian pulp novels ended tragically, with one of the women dying or going mad and the other marrying a man. Happy endings (where two women end up together) were uncommon, but appeared in books throughout the pulp era.
Here are seven from the last decade of pulp. Free links to the texts have been provided where available.
1.These Curious Pleasures by Sloane Britain, 1961.
“Sloane works as a secretary to a New York television producer. She lives in the Village and enjoys cruising the bars at night for one-night stands with women she doesn’t know. She has a few part-time lovers, but hasn’t found the woman who would steal her heart … until she meets Allison, a young actress.” [link]
2.The Jealous and the Free by March Hastings, 1961.
This novel follows Michele, an inexperienced lesbian, and her budding relationship with her roommate Leda, and her difficulties in finding her way as a butch lesbian. [link]
3.The Sex Between by Randy Salem, 1962.
“Lee is a butch woman with many conquests under her belt. She pursues other women with abandon and has lesbian lovers all over town. Her only problem? No matter who she is with, she can’t stop thinking of Maggie. Maggie is sweet on Lee, too, but the matriarch of her family, Kate, has decided Maggie must marry in order to produce an heir to the family fortune. Lee knows she has fallen in love with Maggie, but the thought of giving up her freewheeling ways frightens her. Will Lee admit her feelings for Maggie in time to stop the wedding? Will Maggie defy her grandmother and give up a fortune for a chance at love and happiness with Lee?” [link]
4.Forbidden Sex by Joan Ellis, 1963.
Jean is a secretary in the film industry who supports her lying and philandering husband full time. She’s tired of her unhappy marriage. When she meets an actress called Lee sparks fly, but Lee’s feelings are more than friendly. How will Jean react when Lee reveals her true feelings, and can Lee put love ahead of her career? [link]
5.Return to Lesbos by Valerie Taylor, 1963.
This steamy sequel to Stranger on Lesbos finds Frances, the heroine, stuck in an abusive marriage. She has given up on love when she meets Erika in a bookstore. Both have been damaged by life - can they find the strength to love again? [link]
6.Unlike Others by Valerie Taylor, 1963.
Jo has just ended a relationship with another woman, and decided she is going to focus on her career and stay away from women. Then she meets Betsy at work and all her resolutions go out the window. But Betsy is dating their boss, Stan … [link]
7.Journey to Fulfillmentby Valerie Taylor, 1963.
Erika, a Jewish survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, is adopted into a U.S. family. In the United States she is free to meet women and to explore her butch identity. A prequel to the Erika Frohmann series (Stranger on Lesbos,Return to LesbosandA World Without Men). [link]
(Please note: These books were written at a time when lesbian relationships were taboo in the United States and may reflect prejudices of the era. They may also contain confronting themes like violence against women).
Pulp novels were a lifeline for many gay and bisexual women in the 50s and 60s, a place to see themselves reflected and know they weren’t alone. Although tragic endings were a genre staple, it’s a myth that all lesbian pulp novels ended unhappily. Happy endings were rare, but even at the beginning of the pulp era, books were published where two women were together and happy at the end.
Here are eight from the first two decades of the pulp period. Free links to the texts provided where available.
1.The Strange Path (Torchlight to Valhalla) by Gale Wilhelm, 1938.
“Morgen Teutenberg is an introverted 21-year-old woman nursing her dying father Fritz. She meets a handsome young man who is smitten with her despite her lack of enthusiasm. Then a childhood friend moves back into the street and new feelings are awakened.” [link]
2.Diana, The Story of a Strange Love(Diana, a Strange Autobiography)by Diana Fredericks, 1939.
A thinly veiled autobiography, Diana is the story of a woman coming to terms with her lesbianism through a series of failed and eventually successful relationships. Julie Abraham, in an introduction to a 1995 reprinting says, “It offers a defense of lesbian relationships that was unprecedented in 1939 and radical for decades afterwards.”
3.The Price of Saltby Patricia Highsmith writing as Claire Morgan, 1952.
“A chance encounter between two lonely women leads to a passionate romance in this lesbian cult classic.” [link]
4.Odd Girl [Originally titled Anne Loves Beth] by Artemis Smith, 1959.
A love triangle and a mistaken marriage leads a woman to discover her true desires. [link]
5.Another Kind of Love by Paula Christian, 1959.
Laura Garraway, after being spurned by her Hollywood lover, flees to New York City where she finally finds a place where she belongs. [link]
6.The Girls in 3-Bby Valerie Taylor, 1959.
“Three young women move to Chicago and room together; each wants to emancipate herself from smalltown mores. Valerie Taylor skillfully paints a sociological portrait of the emotional and economic pitfalls of heterosexuality in 1950s America—and then offers a defiantly subversive alternative.” [link]
7.Edge of Twilightby Paula Christian, 1959.
Stewardess Val Macgregor lives a wild life, until she meets Toni, the new stewardess, and must come to terms with new feelings.
8.The Dark Side of Venus by Shirley Verel, 1960.
“A story of two women who defied the conventions of society for the only kind of love that could fulfill them.”
(Please note: These books were written at a time when lesbian relationships were taboo in the United States and may reflect prejudices of the era. They may also contain confronting themes like violence against women).
Seeing a lot of misinformation flying around regarding lesbian flags this year, particularly the pink one, so here’s my attempt to set the record straight!
FAQ/Common Misconceptions andSources are listed below the cut - if anything in this post contradicts what you’ve heard, I’d encourage you to read through them before responding.
PleaseDO NOT promote flag redesigns on this post :)
—————————————————————–
UPDATE 2 (2021):
First of all, a long-overdue note that @moral-autism kindly transcribed the bulk of this infographic here, for anyone looking for a text-only version!
Secondly, I have been contacted by @kiloueka, who created/uploaded the high resolution “Pink Flag” to the Pride-Flags DeviantArt account in 2015. They clarified that they did not independently leave out the lipstick mark to create a general lesbian flag, but had previously seen a kiss-less version in a tumblr post (likely one of the ones linked in the update below).
UPDATE: New Information
@deadicateddeath brought my attention to the existence of this pride flag compilation post on Tumblr, published 8 December 2013. This is now, to my knowledge, the earliest record of the pink stripes featured without the kiss mark. The same blog made another post (10 January 2014) which featured the pink flag and claimed that it was seeing use at the time.
I am extremely interested to know if there is any evidence of pre-2015 use of the pink flag outside of this blog, as I was unable to find any during my research.
Additionally, some people feel I have downplayed the extent of the labrys’s usage. As above, I included a note to acknowledge the prevalence of the symbols used in the labrys flag (separately and in combination), but this post is specifically focussed on flag designs, and I can’t find any indication of a labrys flag itself (whether Sean Campbell’s design, or a separate design) seeing much use pre-2015.
I would be extremely interested to see any evidence of this flag being used pre-2012, something which I did hunt for but could not find.
If you have any sources regarding either of these issues, please send them my way! I am 100% open to correction and clarification, provided it can be factually backed up.
—————————————————————–
FAQ/Common Misconceptions & Source Requests
So… what flag should we use?
My primary motivation in making this was to clear up misinformation, not to tell anyone what flag to use. Use your own judgement, even make your own if you want, just don’t get stressed out if your flag isn’t “the” flag and remember that flag colours are not the only avenue through which to show pride!
The lipstick lesbian flag is an edited version of the pink flag, which is the original.
There is no evidence to support this. The lipstick lesbian flag had been documented online for years prior to the pink flag, as explained above.
The lipstick mark was removed to make the flag more inclusive.
There’s no proof of this - as explained above, the first instance of the mark being “removed” (i.e. not included) was due to it being too complex to easily convert into a high resolution image.
The pink flag is, and has always been, “the” lesbian flag.
The pink flag has only been in semi-common usage since 2016, and its use is still mostly confined to younger online communities.
The rainbow flag is the gay (man) flag.
The rainbow flag [32] was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 to represent the LGBT community as a whole (I used his original 8-stripe design in the final panel). It does not belong exclusively to gay men, and it does represent lesbians. Please stop framing it like this:
when it’s actually like this:
This doesn’t mean we can’thave a specific flag for the lesbian community, but it’s not the case that we need to scramble the fill the gap left by a “missing” flag. Stop reading malice into my words… lmao.
The creator of the the lipstick lesbian flag/the labrys flag is a TERF.
I can’t find any information on Sean Campbell that would suggest this, and while a cursory browse through Natalie McCray’s social media did turn up some casual cissexism, nothing indicates she was a TERF. If you have sources that show otherwise, please send them my way!
What is a “Lipstick Lesbian”?
A feminine lesbian, and by many definitions, one who only dates other feminine lesbians. Natalie McCray’s edits to the Lipstick Lesbian Wikipedia page under the name “Nmdesigns” [7] show that she subscribed to the femme4femme definition.
Why don’t you want people to promote flag redesigns on this post?
This post was created to dispell misinformation and explore the online trails of lesbian flags prior to 2017. I don’t want to tell other people what flag to use, nor do I want others to use this post as a platform to tell other people what flag to use, because that’s not the purpose of this post.
I’m not a lesbian, can I reblog this?
I don’t mind who shares this, but if you want to add commentary as someone ouside the lesbian community, please think carefully on whether or not it is relevant or appropriate.
Can I repost this on Twitter/Facebook/etc?
I don’t mind, but I’d strongly recommend including a link back to this post in order to preserve the sources.
Actually, there is an official/agreed upon flag! It’s ______.
—————————————————————–
Sources
Scupham-Bilton, Tony. “Putting Out Sean Campbell’s Flags”. The Queerstory Files, 21 June 2012. [archive]
(NOTE: This is by no means an exhaustive list of recent redesigns, nor am I interested in curating such a list. I am having difficulty tracking down the original posts for 17and31, if you recognise them please get in touch!)
❝As bisexuals, we experience pressure from both sides to make up our minds, to make a final choice. If we don’t, we incur a collective contempt.
Bisexuals deal with homophobia, biphobia and even heterophobia. The desire to identify with a community often forces bisexuals to repress one side of themselves.
It is a key element in the overall strength and wisdom of the lesbian/gay community that it include and validate bisexual people, and the bisexual movement as an ally in fighting the common enemy, heterosexism.
It is clear that homophobia is at the root of biphobia. Bisexuals have no intention of undermining the gains made by lesbians and gay men in the struggle to be a free people. Coming out as a bisexual is not something that is done to acquire or flaunt heterosexual privilege.
I am bisexual because I am drawn to particular people regardless of gender. It doesn’t make me wishy-washy, confused, untrustworthy, or more sexually liberated. It makes me a bisexual.❞
— Lani Ka'ahumani. “The Bisexual Community: Are We Visible Yet?” Out & Outraged: Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at the U.S. Supreme Court, 13 Oct. 1987, pp. 47–48.
Meeting in Queens School District 24 where the opposition to the “Rainbow Curriculum” was strongest, [Lesbian] Avengers paraded through this working class, multi-ethnic neighborhood with an all-lesbian marching band en route to a local elementary school where they gave out lavender balloons to children and their parents saying, “Ask About Lesbian Lives.” They also wore the tee-shirts reading, “I was a lesbian child.” x
Sometimes I think about lesbian icon renée vivien lauging so hard she had to leave a lecture bc the man was talking about how a book of anonymously published love poetry was the pinnacle depiction of a young man’s desire towards women…… but it was her book. She wrote it. About her girlfriend.
She’s the one on the left.
She IS and I’m obsessed with this image but how could you leave out that the one on the right is the girlfriend in question
“WE ARE YOUR CHILDREN,” Gay & Lesbian Freedom Day, San Francisco, June 25, 1978. Photo by William S. Tom, @onearchives. . In 1977 and 1978, as Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign worked to repeal equal rights ordinances on the premise that children needed protection from LGBTQs, activists across the country answered: “We are your children.” #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #Resist #SFPride2017 #Pride2017 #FridayVibezzz (at San Francisco, California)
This week on Queer as Fact, we’re talking about the 12th-century German nun and polymath Hildegard of Bingen. Join us for thorny theological questions, savage letters to the Pope and a medieval description of the female orgasm.
