From the lesbian nation to the Cincinnati lesbian community: Moving toward a politics of location

Journal of the History of Sexuality

Volumn 9, Issue 1-2, 2000, Pages 137-171

  Freeman, Susan K ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0034402456     PISSN: 10434070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (149)

1. Dinah, January 1976, 3.
2. Dinah, January 1976, 3; June 1976, 10-11; February 1977, 13-14.
3. Dinah, June 1976, 3.
4. The letter identified local tribes as "Louisville, Cincinnati, Knoxville, Indianapolis, Columbus, Dayton, etc.," the "Midwest" counted as a legion. Dinah, June 1976, 5.
5. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
6. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
7. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
8. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
9. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
10. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
11. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
12. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
13. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
14. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
15. In the order of their publication dates, this literature includes Eric Garber, "A Spectacle in Color: The Lesbian and Gay Subculture of Jazz Age Harlem," in Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, and George Chauncey Jr., eds. (New York: NAL, 1989), 318-31; Trisha Franzen, "Differences and Identities: Feminism and the Albuquerque Lesbian Community," Signs 18 (4)(summer 1993): 891-906; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Reconsideration of Cultural Feminism," Signs 19 (1) (autumn 1993): 32-61; Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy and Madeline D. Davis, Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community (New York: Routledge, 1993); Esther Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993); George Chauncey Jr., Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994); Marc Robert Stein, "The City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: The Making of Lesbian and Gay Movements in Greater Philadelphia, 1948-1972" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994); Becki L. Ross, The House That Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995); John Howard, ed., Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South (New York: New York University Press, 1997); Brett Beemyn, ed., Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (New York: Routledge, 1997); and Daneel Buring, Lesbian and Gay Memphis: Building Communities behind the Magnolia Curtain (New York: Garland, 1997). Among these, only the work by Ross is a book-length study of lesbian feminism in the 1970s.
16. John Howard, "Regional Distinctiveness in the Southern Lesbian and Gay Experience" (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, Nashville, TN, October 28, 1994); John Howard, "Introduction: Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South," in Carryin' On, 1-12. In a similar vein, Nancy Whittier's study of radical feminism argues that a national periodization of the women's movement is inadequate to describe how the movement functioned at the grassroots level in smaller cities. Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Radical Women's Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995).
17. John Howard, "Regional Distinctiveness in the Southern Lesbian and Gay Experience" (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, Nashville, TN, October 28, 1994); John Howard, "Introduction: Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South," in Carryin' On, 1-12. In a similar vein, Nancy Whittier's study of radical feminism argues that a national periodization of the women's movement is inadequate to describe how the movement functioned at the grassroots level in smaller cities. Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Radical Women's Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995).
18. John Howard, "Regional Distinctiveness in the Southern Lesbian and Gay Experience" (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, Nashville, TN, October 28, 1994); John Howard, "Introduction: Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South," in Carryin' On, 1-12. In a similar vein, Nancy Whittier's study of radical feminism argues that a national periodization of the women's movement is inadequate to describe how the movement functioned at the grassroots level in smaller cities. Feminist Generations: The Persistence of the Radical Women's Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995).
19. Some of the movement-produced publications that provide participant accounts of lesbian feminist communities are Charlotte Bunch and Nancy Myron, eds., Class and Feminism: A Collection of Essays from the Furies (Baltimore, MD: Diana Press, 1974); Joyce Cheney, ed., Lesbian Land (Minneapolis, MN: Word Weavers, 1985); and Michal Brody, ed., Are We There Yet? A Continuing History of Lavender Woman, A Chicago Lesbian Newspaper, 1971-1976 (Iowa City: Aunt Lute, 1985).
20. Some of the movement-produced publications that provide participant accounts of lesbian feminist communities are Charlotte Bunch and Nancy Myron, eds., Class and Feminism: A Collection of Essays from the Furies (Baltimore, MD: Diana Press, 1974); Joyce Cheney, ed., Lesbian Land (Minneapolis, MN: Word Weavers, 1985); and Michal Brody, ed., Are We There Yet? A Continuing History of Lavender Woman, A Chicago Lesbian Newspaper, 1971-1976 (Iowa City: Aunt Lute, 1985).
21. Some of the movement-produced publications that provide participant accounts of lesbian feminist communities are Charlotte Bunch and Nancy Myron, eds., Class and Feminism: A Collection of Essays from the Furies (Baltimore, MD: Diana Press, 1974); Joyce Cheney, ed., Lesbian Land (Minneapolis, MN: Word Weavers, 1985); and Michal Brody, ed., Are We There Yet? A Continuing History of Lavender Woman, A Chicago Lesbian Newspaper, 1971-1976 (Iowa City: Aunt Lute, 1985).
22. My thinking about a politics of location has been stimulated by scholars and activists writing about identity and identity politics. When I began the project, I found the following sources most instructive: Chandra Talpade Mohanty's introduction in Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, eds., Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1991, 1-47); Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987); and Shane Phelan, Getting Specific: Postmodern Lesbian Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994).
23. My thinking about a politics of location has been stimulated by scholars and activists writing about identity and identity politics. When I began the project, I found the following sources most instructive: Chandra Talpade Mohanty's introduction in Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, eds., Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1991, 1-47); Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987); and Shane Phelan, Getting Specific: Postmodern Lesbian Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994).
24. My thinking about a politics of location has been stimulated by scholars and activists writing about identity and identity politics. When I began the project, I found the following sources most instructive: Chandra Talpade Mohanty's introduction in Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres, eds., Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1991, 1-47); Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987); and Shane Phelan, Getting Specific: Postmodern Lesbian Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994).
25. Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989). Critiques of Echols include Rupp and Taylor, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism," and 'Becca Cragin, "Post-Lesbian-Feminism: Documenting 'Those Cruddy Old Dykes of Yore,'" in Howard, ed., Carryin' On, 285-327. Cragin rakes Lillian Faderman over the coals for her allegedly unfavorable portrayal of lesbian feminists in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). While Faderman's analysis does appear to favor "the Shift to Moderation" in the 1980s, as Cragin argues, her chronology of lesbian feminism makes an effort at using geographically diverse sources.
26. Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989). Critiques of Echols include Rupp and Taylor, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism," and 'Becca Cragin, "Post-Lesbian-Feminism: Documenting 'Those Cruddy Old Dykes of Yore,'" in Howard, ed., Carryin' On, 285-327. Cragin rakes Lillian Faderman over the coals for her allegedly unfavorable portrayal of lesbian feminists in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). While Faderman's analysis does appear to favor "the Shift to Moderation" in the 1980s, as Cragin argues, her chronology of lesbian feminism makes an effort at using geographically diverse sources.
27. Alice Echols, Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989). Critiques of Echols include Rupp and Taylor, "Women's Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism," and 'Becca Cragin, "Post-Lesbian-Feminism: Documenting 'Those Cruddy Old Dykes of Yore,'" in Howard, ed., Carryin' On, 285-327. Cragin rakes Lillian Faderman over the coals for her allegedly unfavorable portrayal of lesbian feminists in Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). While Faderman's analysis does appear to favor "the Shift to Moderation" in the 1980s, as Cragin argues, her chronology of lesbian feminism makes an effort at using geographically diverse sources.
28. Arlene Stein, "Sisters and Queers: The Decentering of Lesbian Feminism," Socialist Review 22 (1) (January 1992): 33-55.
29. Sara M. Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left (New York: Knopf, 1979), x.
30. For a historiographical review of the debates in women's history during the the 1970s and 1980s, see Linda K. Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," Journal of American History 75 (1) (June 1988): 9-19. Key to the development of the women's culture paradigm were Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs 1 (1) (autumn 1975):1-29, and Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977). Ellen Carol DuBois argued that women's culture failed to challenge gender inequality, and thus the women's suffrage movement - born out of women's work in the abolitionist movement - was the first manifestation of feminism in the nineteenth-century United States. Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978). The classic critique of women's historians' use of the model of sisterhood is Nancy A. Hewitt, "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980s," Social History 10 (3) (October 1985): 299-321. Alternative models for women's history were proposed and discussed in a Feminist Studies symposium. Iris Berger, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Nancy A. Hewitt, "Intersections and Collision Courses: Women, Blacks and Workers Confront Gender, Race, and Class," Feminist Studies 18 (2) (summer 1992): 283-326.
31. For a historiographical review of the debates in women's history during the the 1970s and 1980s, see Linda K. Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," Journal of American History 75 (1) (June 1988): 9-19. Key to the development of the women's culture paradigm were Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs 1 (1) (autumn 1975):1-29, and Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977). Ellen Carol DuBois argued that women's culture failed to challenge gender inequality, and thus the women's suffrage movement - born out of women's work in the abolitionist movement - was the first manifestation of feminism in the nineteenth-century United States. Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978). The classic critique of women's historians' use of the model of sisterhood is Nancy A. Hewitt, "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980s," Social History 10 (3) (October 1985): 299-321. Alternative models for women's history were proposed and discussed in a Feminist Studies symposium. Iris Berger, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Nancy A. Hewitt, "Intersections and Collision Courses: Women, Blacks and Workers Confront Gender, Race, and Class," Feminist Studies 18 (2) (summer 1992): 283-326.
32. For a historiographical review of the debates in women's history during the the 1970s and 1980s, see Linda K. Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," Journal of American History 75 (1) (June 1988): 9-19. Key to the development of the women's culture paradigm were Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs 1 (1) (autumn 1975):1-29, and Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977). Ellen Carol DuBois argued that women's culture failed to challenge gender inequality, and thus the women's suffrage movement - born out of women's work in the abolitionist movement - was the first manifestation of feminism in the nineteenth-century United States. Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978). The classic critique of women's historians' use of the model of sisterhood is Nancy A. Hewitt, "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980s," Social History 10 (3) (October 1985): 299-321. Alternative models for women's history were proposed and discussed in a Feminist Studies symposium. Iris Berger, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Nancy A. Hewitt, "Intersections and Collision Courses: Women, Blacks and Workers Confront Gender, Race, and Class," Feminist Studies 18 (2) (summer 1992): 283-326.
33. For a historiographical review of the debates in women's history during the the 1970s and 1980s, see Linda K. Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," Journal of American History 75 (1) (June 1988): 9-19. Key to the development of the women's culture paradigm were Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs 1 (1) (autumn 1975):1-29, and Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977). Ellen Carol DuBois argued that women's culture failed to challenge gender inequality, and thus the women's suffrage movement - born out of women's work in the abolitionist movement - was the first manifestation of feminism in the nineteenth-century United States. Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978). The classic critique of women's historians' use of the model of sisterhood is Nancy A. Hewitt, "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980s," Social History 10 (3) (October 1985): 299-321. Alternative models for women's history were proposed and discussed in a Feminist Studies symposium. Iris Berger, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Nancy A. Hewitt, "Intersections and Collision Courses: Women, Blacks and Workers Confront Gender, Race, and Class," Feminist Studies 18 (2) (summer 1992): 283-326.
34. For a historiographical review of the debates in women's history during the the 1970s and 1980s, see Linda K. Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," Journal of American History 75 (1) (June 1988): 9-19. Key to the development of the women's culture paradigm were Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs 1 (1) (autumn 1975):1-29, and Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977). Ellen Carol DuBois argued that women's culture failed to challenge gender inequality, and thus the women's suffrage movement - born out of women's work in the abolitionist movement - was the first manifestation of feminism in the nineteenth-century United States. Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978). The classic critique of women's historians' use of the model of sisterhood is Nancy A. Hewitt, "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980s," Social History 10 (3) (October 1985): 299-321. Alternative models for women's history were proposed and discussed in a Feminist Studies symposium. Iris Berger, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Nancy A. Hewitt, "Intersections and Collision Courses: Women, Blacks and Workers Confront Gender, Race, and Class," Feminist Studies 18 (2) (summer 1992): 283-326.
35. For a historiographical review of the debates in women's history during the the 1970s and 1980s, see Linda K. Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," Journal of American History 75 (1) (June 1988): 9-19. Key to the development of the women's culture paradigm were Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Signs 1 (1) (autumn 1975):1-29, and Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977). Ellen Carol DuBois argued that women's culture failed to challenge gender inequality, and thus the women's suffrage movement - born out of women's work in the abolitionist movement - was the first manifestation of feminism in the nineteenth-century United States. Ellen Carol DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978). The classic critique of women's historians' use of the model of sisterhood is Nancy A. Hewitt, "Beyond the Search for Sisterhood: American Women's History in the 1980s," Social History 10 (3) (October 1985): 299-321. Alternative models for women's history were proposed and discussed in a Feminist Studies symposium. Iris Berger, Elsa Barkley Brown, and Nancy A. Hewitt, "Intersections and Collision Courses: Women, Blacks and Workers Confront Gender, Race, and Class," Feminist Studies 18 (2) (summer 1992): 283-326.
36. The concept of imagined communities is associated with the work of Benedict Anderson. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).
37. The 1993 citywide referendum known as Issue 3 removed protection for gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from the human rights ordinance, with 63 percent of voters supporting the ballot initiative. Also in the mid-1990s, surveillance of sex-related activity and violations of the first amendment took the form of confiscating a video from a gay-owned bookstore and raiding electronic bulletin boards. These more recent and widely publicized occurrences are connected to a longer history of state-enforced moralism, personified in the antigay and anti-pornography activist, Simon Leis. Leis served as Hamilton County prosecutor from 1971 to 1983, as a judge on the Court of Common Pleas from 1983 to 1987, and has served as sheriff of Hamilton County for the past decade. Under Leis' leadership, the county that encompasses Cincinnati has kept adult bookstores, video stores, and theaters out of its jurisdiction, forcing consumers across the state line into neighboring Newport, Kentucky.
38. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
39. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
40. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
41. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
42. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
43. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
44. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
45. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
46. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
47. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
48. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
49. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
50. Primary sources from the Ohio Lesbian Archives (hereafter OLA), Cincinnati, Ohio, include Dinah, 1975-present; Lesbian Connection, 1974-1979; and files on Labyris and the Lesbian Activist Bureau (LAB), including newsletters, minutes, flyers, and other communications. From the University of Cincinnati archives (hereafter UC archives), I read the student newspaper, the News Record, 1972-1978, and a collection for Women Helping Women [US-86-17] which includes folders labeled History, By-Laws, General Information; Minutes, 1975-1979; and Newsletters/Announcements 1975-1980. On microfilm, copies of the following periodicals were available: Gay Community News (Boston), 1974-1979; and Independent Eye (Cincinnati), 1969-1970, 1973-1975; Enquirer, Post, and Herald (Cincinnati). The Ohio Historical Society (OHS), Columbus, Ohio, has incomplete holdings of the following periodicals: Yellow Page (Cincinnati), 1979; High Gear (Cleveland), 1976-1979; Purple Cow (Columbus), 1974-1976; Ohio Gay Rights Coalition Newsletter (Oberlin), 1977-1980; Central Ohio Gay Newsletter (Columbus), 1971; Columbus Gay Activist (Columbus), 1972-1976. Finally, Joanne Meycrowitz provided me with a copy of the Cincinnati Mattachine Society's publication, formatt (Cincinnati), 1968.
51. Historians and feminists scholars have addressed the merits and drawbacks of oral history methodology in a number of articles, monographs, and anthologies. Among these are Kennedy and Davis, Boots of Leather; and Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai, Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (New York: Routledge, 1991). On combining different disciplinary approaches, see Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Researching the Women's Movement: We Make Our Own History, But Not Just As We Please," in Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research, ed. Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 119-32.
52. Historians and feminists scholars have addressed the merits and drawbacks of oral history methodology in a number of articles, monographs, and anthologies. Among these are Kennedy and Davis, Boots of Leather; and Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai, Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (New York: Routledge, 1991). On combining different disciplinary approaches, see Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Researching the Women's Movement: We Make Our Own History, But Not Just As We Please," in Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research, ed. Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 119-32.
53. Historians and feminists scholars have addressed the merits and drawbacks of oral history methodology in a number of articles, monographs, and anthologies. Among these are Kennedy and Davis, Boots of Leather; and Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai, Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (New York: Routledge, 1991). On combining different disciplinary approaches, see Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, "Researching the Women's Movement: We Make Our Own History, But Not Just As We Please," in Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research, ed. Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cook (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 119-32.
54. To clarify how I chose women to interview: I began contacting women I knew through the University of Cincinnati and Crazy Ladies bookstore and then encouraged referrals from these individuals. This approach, not surprisingly, led me to include a number of women for whom college education, graduate school, and reading and writing were significant components of their lives. In addition to the contacts these women suggested, I also tracked down women whose names appeared on archival phone and mailing lists. My goal was to include women with differing relationships to various segments of lesbian feminist activity and organizations. While my research does encounter gay men and heterosexual feminists through gay and feminist organizations and publications, I did not interview men or "straight" women for this project. Also left out of the set of interviews are women who no longer reside in Cincinnati. Further, I have not interviewed lesbians whose primary locus of community was and is the bars nor lesbians who are not feminists.
55. The women I interviewed generally referred to this as their "coming out" process, meaning either when they first had a female lover or when they first acknowledged their attraction to women to themselves and/or publicly.
56. Interview with Marianne Henry (pseudonym), December 15, 1994. Henry was one of ten women I interviewed for this project. She is a white, Jewish lesbian who was active in the Civil Rights movement. The transcribed interviews are available at the Ohio Lesbian Archives. I use present tense to refer to the interviews in order to highlight the distinctness of these memories from the sources that date to the 1970s.
57. According to Henry, the few women who appeared in the men's bars were either working-class lesbians or occasionally middle-class lesbians (e.g., teachers) out "slumming" for a night.
58. Henry was one of only two women whose names appeared in the twenty-page CMS newsletter. According to formatt, she received the first CMS Humanitarian award "as the founder of the homophile movement in Cincinnati." formatt, 1968, 9.
59. John D'Emilio, Martin Duberman, and Marc Stein give accounts of the relationship between homophile and liberation movements in select cities. See John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, 1993); and Stein, "City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves." Tricia Franzen contends that without a sexuality-based movement in Albuquerque prior to the feminist movement, lesbians
60. John D'Emilio, Martin Duberman, and Marc Stein give accounts of the relationship between homophile and liberation movements in select cities. See John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, 1993); and Stein, "City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves." Tricia Franzen contends that without a sexuality-based movement in Albuquerque prior to the feminist movement, lesbians lacked "a base for a shared political consciousness or even a sense of an organized political community." Franzen, "Differences and Identities," 904. No militant gay group emerged in Cincinnati, although in Columbus, Ohio, there was a Gay Liberation Front that described itself in 1971 as "part of a fast growing national gay liberation movement. It is the militant wing of the 20-year-old Homophile Movement, and the Gay wing of a broader Movement for peace, for human rights and minority integrity, and for preservation of the environment." Central Ohio Gay Newsletter, [March?] 1971.
61. John D'Emilio, Martin Duberman, and Marc Stein give accounts of the relationship between homophile and liberation movements in select cities. See John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, 1993); and Stein, "City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves." Tricia Franzen contends that without a sexuality-based movement in Albuquerque prior to the feminist movement, lesbians lacked "a base for a shared political consciousness or even a sense of an organized political community." Franzen, "Differences and Identities," 904. No militant gay group emerged in Cincinnati, although in Columbus, Ohio, there was a Gay Liberation Front that described itself in 1971 as "part of a fast growing national gay liberation movement. It is the militant wing of the 20-year-old Homophile Movement, and the Gay wing of a broader Movement for peace, for human rights and minority integrity, and for preservation of the environment." Central Ohio Gay Newsletter, [March?] 1971.
62. John D'Emilio, Martin Duberman, and Marc Stein give accounts of the relationship between homophile and liberation movements in select cities. See John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, 1993); and Stein, "City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves." Tricia Franzen contends that without a sexuality-based movement in Albuquerque prior to the feminist movement, lesbians lacked "a base for a shared political consciousness or even a sense of an organized political community." Franzen, "Differences and Identities," 904. No militant gay group emerged in Cincinnati, although in Columbus, Ohio, there was a Gay Liberation Front that described itself in 1971 as "part of a fast growing national gay liberation movement. It is the militant wing of the 20-year-old Homophile Movement, and the Gay wing of a broader Movement for peace, for human rights and minority integrity, and for preservation of the environment." Central Ohio Gay Newsletter, [March?] 1971.
63. John D'Emilio, Martin Duberman, and Marc Stein give accounts of the relationship between homophile and liberation movements in select cities. See John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, 1993); and Stein, "City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves." Tricia Franzen contends that without a sexuality-based movement in Albuquerque prior to the feminist movement, lesbians lacked "a base for a shared political consciousness or even a sense of an organized political community." Franzen, "Differences and Identities," 904. No militant gay group emerged in Cincinnati, although in Columbus, Ohio, there was a Gay Liberation Front that described itself in 1971 as "part of a fast growing national gay liberation movement. It is the militant wing of the 20-year-old Homophile Movement, and the Gay wing of a broader Movement for peace, for human rights and minority integrity, and for preservation of the environment." Central Ohio Gay Newsletter, [March?] 1971.
64. Interview with Deborah Arapa, January 24, 1995. Arapa is a white lesbian who returned to Cincinnati for graduate school after completing college at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
65. According to a local alternative newspaper, the parade consisted of seventy-five marchers; a crowd of four hundred attended speeches and guerrilla theater at downtown Fountain Square. Independent Eye, May 1973, 1. Columbus Gay Activist also reported on the event; a Columbus writer who attended the festivities wrote that he enjoyed the "gay weekend." Columbus Gay Activist, April 18, 1973, 4. His story included no mention of lesbians, and Arapa estimates that the number of lesbians present was fewer than a dozen, including women from out of town.
66. According to a local alternative newspaper, the parade consisted of seventy-five marchers; a crowd of four hundred attended speeches and guerrilla theater at downtown Fountain Square. Independent Eye, May 1973, 1. Columbus Gay Activist also reported on the event; a Columbus writer who attended the festivities wrote that he enjoyed the "gay weekend." Columbus Gay Activist, April 18, 1973, 4. His story included no mention of lesbians, and Arapa estimates that the number of lesbians present was fewer than a dozen, including women from out of town.
67. Independent Eye, June 1973, 2. The UC Gay Society received coverage in seven consecutive issues of the News Record, May 1-22, 1973, including staff editorials in favor of recognizing the group.
68. Interview with Phebe Beiser and Victoria Ramstetter, December 20, 1994. Beiser and Ramstetter are the cofounders and coordinators of the Ohio Lesbian Archives. Ramstetter describes her race/ethnicity as white, French, German, Swiss, black Irish, and Scottish and has written and published a novel and two books of poetry. Born in 1953, she was the youngest woman I interviewed. Beiser is a white librarian from Hamilton, Ohio, who, like Ramstetter, was also in her twenties during the 1970s.
69. As early as August 1976, Dinah announced bimonthly meetings for a coalition working on the human rights initiative. See also "Council to get rights issue," Cincinnati Post, January 5, 1978.
70. Dinah, June 1978, 7, 20. Many believed that the arrests were an effort to discredit efforts to bring the human rights ordinance (which first came before city council in 1978) to a vote. In fact, the local papers did cover the arrests and made links to gay activism surrounding the ordinance, police brutality, and even lesbian rights. See Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post for April 1978; Dinah, June 1978.
71. Dinah, June 1978, 7, 20. Many believed that the arrests were an effort to discredit efforts to bring the human rights ordinance (which first came before city council in 1978) to a vote. In fact, the local papers did cover the arrests and made links to gay activism surrounding the ordinance, police brutality, and even lesbian rights. See Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post for April 1978; Dinah, June 1978.
72. Dinah, June 1978, 7, 20. Many believed that the arrests were an effort to discredit efforts to bring the human rights ordinance (which first came before city council in 1978) to a vote. In fact, the local papers did cover the arrests and made links to gay activism surrounding the ordinance, police brutality, and even lesbian rights. See Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post for April 1978; Dinah, June 1978.
73. Dinah, June 1978, 7, 20. Many believed that the arrests were an effort to discredit efforts to bring the human rights ordinance (which first came before city council in 1978) to a vote. In fact, the local papers did cover the arrests and made links to gay activism surrounding the ordinance, police brutality, and even lesbian rights. See Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post for April 1978; Dinah, June 1978.
74. Cincinnati Enquirer, April 1978.
75. Dinah, June 1978, 10.
76. Ibid. I uncovered only one article on lesbians and gays published in the Cincinnati Herald since the 1970s, in July 1992. While the black community newspaper is smaller and published less frequently than the mainstream press, the invisibility of gay and lesbian issues is no less glaring.
77. Wendy Winkler's speech was printed in Dinah, August 1978, 23-28.
78. Interview with Marie Dennis, January 31, 1995; interview with Vic Ramstetter and Phebe Beiser; and Dinah, January 1976, 5, and April 1978, 15. Marie Dennis is a black woman from Cincinnati who spent eight years in a convent before coming out as a lesbian; she said that reading Lesbian/Woman first clarified for her what a lesbian was. Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex (New York: Putnam, 1971); Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman (San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1972); and Ginny Vida, ed. Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1978).
79. Interview with Marie Dennis, January 31, 1995; interview with Vic Ramstetter and Phebe Beiser; and Dinah, January 1976, 5, and April 1978, 15. Marie Dennis is a black woman from Cincinnati who spent eight years in a convent before coming out as a lesbian; she said that reading Lesbian/Woman first clarified for her what a lesbian was. Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex (New York: Putnam, 1971); Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman (San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1972); and Ginny Vida, ed. Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1978).
80. Interview with Marie Dennis, January 31, 1995; interview with Vic Ramstetter and Phebe Beiser; and Dinah, January 1976, 5, and April 1978, 15. Marie Dennis is a black woman from Cincinnati who spent eight years in a convent before coming out as a lesbian; she said that reading Lesbian/Woman first clarified for her what a lesbian was. Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex (New York: Putnam, 1971); Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman (San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1972); and Ginny Vida, ed. Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1978).
81. Interview with Marie Dennis, January 31, 1995; interview with Vic Ramstetter and Phebe Beiser; and Dinah, January 1976, 5, and April 1978, 15. Marie Dennis is a black woman from Cincinnati who spent eight years in a convent before coming out as a lesbian; she said that reading Lesbian/Woman first clarified for her what a lesbian was. Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex (New York: Putnam, 1971); Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman (San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1972); and Ginny Vida, ed. Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1978).
82. Interview with Marie Dennis, January 31, 1995; interview with Vic Ramstetter and Phebe Beiser; and Dinah, January 1976, 5, and April 1978, 15. Marie Dennis is a black woman from Cincinnati who spent eight years in a convent before coming out as a lesbian; she said that reading Lesbian/Woman first clarified for her what a lesbian was. Elizabeth Gould Davis, The First Sex (New York: Putnam, 1971); Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Lesbian/Woman (San Francisco: Glide Publications, 1972); and Ginny Vida, ed. Our Right to Love: A Lesbian Resource Book (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1978).
83. Barry D. Adam, The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement, rev. ed. (New York: Twayne, 1995), 114.
84. Cincinnati was the only Ohio city to mark the Stonewall anniversary with a public event. The 1979 occasion received a proclamation from Mayor Bobbie Sterne and doubled the previous year's attendance of 150 to 300.
85. In a listing of organizations in the July 1979 issue of Yellow Page, a Cincinnati Men's Network was identified as an organization of gay and "non-gay" men against sexism. More commonly, men presumed that it was women's obligation to end their oppression as women. For instance, in one newsletter the writers noted, "This newsletter is male dominated and will remain that way until some of the sisters out there start helping or taking over. Power to the sisters!" Central Ohio Gay Newsletter, June 11, 1974.
86. High Gear, July 1978, 6. Emphasis in original.
87. Interview with Lois McGuinness, January 12, 1995. Lois McGuinness is a white lesbian, a florist, and a fan of women's music.
88. "Sex wars" refers to heated debates over sexual practices, where the polarized positions were often depicted by the labels "pro-sex" and "anti-porn." While Dinah contains discussions about monogamy, sadomasochism, and pornography, only one narrator positions herself in her interview in terms of this debate. Ramstetter derides the anti-porn academic feminists who promote censorship of any form, and not coincidentally, she also wrote erotic poetry, talked openly about her experiences with sex toys, and reviewed Coming to Power in her "Is Sex a Political Act?" column in Dinah in the early 1980s. Dinah, September 1979, 5-6, and January/February 1982, 13-14, and Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M (San Francisco: SAMOIS, 1981). Earlier, in an article announcing the conviction of Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler ("a straight pornography magazine"), an unnamed author demonstrated a common fear of censorship and how it might affect lesbian and gay communities: "There's a great deal of concern about where all of this is going to lead." Dinah, February 1977, 22. While pedophilia was a practice that even Cincinnati's pro-sex lesbian feminists did not support, they did consider the implications of curtailing consensual adult activity.
89. "Sex wars" refers to heated debates over sexual practices, where the polarized positions were often depicted by the labels "pro-sex" and "anti-porn." While Dinah contains discussions about monogamy, sadomasochism, and pornography, only one narrator positions herself in her interview in terms of this debate. Ramstetter derides the anti-porn academic feminists who promote censorship of any form, and not coincidentally, she also wrote erotic poetry, talked openly about her experiences with sex toys, and reviewed Coming to Power in her "Is Sex a Political Act?" column in Dinah in the early 1980s. Dinah, September 1979, 5-6, and January/February 1982, 13-14, and Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M (San Francisco: SAMOIS, 1981). Earlier, in an article announcing the conviction of Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler ("a straight pornography magazine"), an unnamed author demonstrated a common fear of censorship and how it might affect lesbian and gay communities: "There's a great deal of concern about where all of this is going to lead." Dinah, February 1977, 22. While pedophilia was a practice that even Cincinnati's pro-sex lesbian feminists did not support, they did consider the implications of curtailing consensual adult activity.
90. "Sex wars" refers to heated debates over sexual practices, where the polarized positions were often depicted by the labels "pro-sex" and "anti-porn." While Dinah contains discussions about monogamy, sadomasochism, and pornography, only one narrator positions herself in her interview in terms of this debate. Ramstetter derides the anti-porn academic feminists who promote censorship of any form, and not coincidentally, she also wrote erotic poetry, talked openly about her experiences with sex toys, and reviewed Coming to Power in her "Is Sex a Political Act?" column in Dinah in the early 1980s. Dinah, September 1979, 5-6, and January/February 1982, 13-14, and Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M (San Francisco: SAMOIS, 1981). Earlier, in an article announcing the conviction of Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler ("a straight pornography magazine"), an unnamed author demonstrated a common fear of censorship and how it might affect lesbian and gay communities: "There's a great deal of concern about where all of this is going to lead." Dinah, February 1977, 22. While pedophilia was a practice that even Cincinnati's pro-sex lesbian feminists did not support, they did consider the implications of curtailing consensual adult activity.
91. Dinah, June 1978, 7, and May 1979, 9. Interviews with Lois McGuinness and Sequoia Powers, February 6, 1995. Sequoia Powers, formerly known as Wendy Winkler, is a white lesbian, the oldest woman I interviewed (born in 1940), and a former nun. The quotation is from Dinah, May 1979, 9.
92. Dinah, June 1978, 7, and May 1979, 9. Interviews with Lois McGuinness and Sequoia Powers, February 6, 1995. Sequoia Powers, formerly known as Wendy Winkler, is a white lesbian, the oldest woman I interviewed (born in 1940), and a former nun. The quotation is from Dinah, May 1979, 9.
93. See Esther Newton on the development of gay male sensibility and humor known as "camp." Newton, Cherry Grove, Fire Island.
94. High Gear, April 1979, July/August 1979, 1; Gay Community News, August 4, 1979, 1; and Yellow Page, December 1979, 3. Coverage of the attacks and protests in the gay press neglected to mention race or class.
95. High Gear, April 1979, July/August 1979, 1; Gay Community News, August 4, 1979, 1; and Yellow Page, December 1979, 3. Coverage of the attacks and protests in the gay press neglected to mention race or class.
96. High Gear, April 1979, July/August 1979, 1; Gay Community News, August 4, 1979, 1; and Yellow Page, December 1979, 3. Coverage of the attacks and protests in the gay press neglected to mention race or class.
97. "Lesbians to picket," Cincinnati Post, September 6, 1979, 13.
98. Interview with Phebe Beiser and Victoria Ramstetter.
99. Interviews with Marie Dennis and Lois McGuinness. Marie Dennis is African American, and she participated prominently in a lesbian feminist separatist group, an interesting fact in light of the usual arguments made about separatism being a white lesbian feminist project. For instance, black lesbians and feminists in the Combahee River Collective wrote that they "reject[ed] the stance of Lesbian separatism because it is not a viable political analysis or strategy for us. It leaves out far too much and far too many people, particularly Black men, women, and children." Combahee River Collective, "The Combahee River Collective Statement," in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Barbara Smith, ed. (New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1983), 277.
100. Labyris Constitution (n.d.), Labyris files, OLA. In addition to consciousness-raising and book-selling, the constitution reveals that Labyris conducted peer-counseling and auto-mechanics classes for lesbians and also addressed groups and classes at colleges and universities and spoke on radio shows.
101. Newsletters for October 1974, December 1974, January 1975, February 1975, March 1975, and May 1975, Labyris files, OLA; "Cincinnati Lesbians at Ohio NOW Convention," fall 1973, Labyris files, OLA. MCC, a largely gay and lesbian Christian church, was probably a less likely source for recruiting radical lesbian feminists than was WHW, a feminist counseling service that was run for the most part by lesbians. My impression, however, is that many of the lesbian feminists involved with WHW were reticent about their sexual identity, making them perhaps even more wary than heterosexual feminists of being associated with lesbian causes. Whether WHW feminists conceived of their sexuality as their "private" life or whether they feared disclosure to employers and families is unclear. This topic is a subject for further research, and Stephanie Gilmore's work-in-progress on sexuality and race in various branches of NOW should offer insight on questions of lesbian identity in feminist organizations of the 1970s. Only a few, sporadic feminist organizations existed in Cincinnati during Labyris's day, until the opening of Crazy Ladies Bookstore in 1979. Ongoing organizations among African American feminists were even more scarce. Marie Dennis observed in 1977 that "the organizations I've seen among black lesbians are basically social. I haven't heard of anything that's really political. But there's not any black feminist activity going on in Cincinnati - that's practically nil." Dinah, March 1977, 6.
102. News Record, April 23, 1974.
103. Purple Cow, winter 1976.
104. Dinah, December 1982, 20, and Lesbian Connection, December 1977; interview with Susan Hilgendorf, January 10, 1995. Hilgendorf is a white woman who taught high school in Cincinnati in the 1970s. Announcements and reviews of women's music were a regular feature of Dinah after 1977.
105. Dinah, December 1982, 20, and Lesbian Connection, December 1977; interview with Susan Hilgendorf, January 10, 1995. Hilgendorf is a white woman who taught high school in Cincinnati in the 1970s. Announcements and reviews of women's music were a regular feature of Dinah after 1977.
106. The evidence of FBI investigation comes from Marie Dennis's narration of agents who approached her workplace in their effort to locate Patricia Hearst and from anecdotal accounts in Dinah about Deb Arapa being harassed in 1975. Sandie Garsey (a.k.a. "Mama Blues") joked in Dinah about singing "FBI Blues" into her receiver at the top of her lungs in 1977, and in the same issue, a mock profile of a Dinah reader suggested that "Ann Glow Saxon," a detective and pepperoni slicer from Indianapolis, "infiltrated the FBI, proved that J. Edgar Hoover slept in panty hose, uncovered and published a list of 500 informers within minority, wimmin's lesbian and gay groups." Dinah, October 1977, 5, and February 1977, 9-10. It is beyond the scope of this paper to deal with the relationship between the FBI and lesbian feminism, although it would certainly make for an engaging study.
107. Interview with Vie Ramstetter and Phebe Beiser. Refer to Wini Breines for a discussion of "prefigurative politics," by which she means attempts "to develop the seeds of liberation and the new society prior to and in the process of revolution." Wini Breines, Community and Organization in the New Left, 1962-1968: The Great Refusal (New York: Praeger, 1982), 7.
108. Sandie Garsey began the newsletter in 1974 as founder of Ohio NOW's Task Force on Sexuality and Lesbianism (FOSAL). The name "Dinah" was shortened from "Dinah Soar," a play on the task force's acronym that was an improvement upon "Paleographer," "Snoozeletter," and "Fosaletter," in part because of its resemblance to Dinah Shore, who was not known as a lesbian but whose annual golf tournament draws a lot of lesbians. The September 1975 issue announced Garsey's new address in Cincinnati. After moving in with Winkler, Garsey announced Dinah's address with the heading "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah." The October 1975 issue was exceptional in its attention to NOW; otherwise, NOW was virtually absent from the publication after 1975. Dinah became a publication of LAB in 1977. Dinah, April 1977, 20. Continuing to play on the name "Dinah," editors instructed readers to tell their mothers that Dinah was "the DINAH that was working on the railroad all that time." Dinah, January 1979, 7.
109. Sandie Garsey began the newsletter in 1974 as founder of Ohio NOW's Task Force on Sexuality and Lesbianism (FOSAL). The name "Dinah" was shortened from "Dinah Soar," a play on the task force's acronym that was an improvement upon "Paleographer," "Snoozeletter," and "Fosaletter," in part because of its resemblance to Dinah Shore, who was not known as a lesbian but whose annual golf tournament draws a lot of lesbians. The September 1975 issue announced Garsey's new address in Cincinnati. After moving in with Winkler, Garsey announced Dinah's address with the heading "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah." The October 1975 issue was exceptional in its attention to NOW; otherwise, NOW was virtually absent from the publication after 1975. Dinah became a publication of LAB in 1977. Dinah, April 1977, 20. Continuing to play on the name "Dinah," editors instructed readers to tell their mothers that Dinah was "the DINAH that was working on the railroad all that time." Dinah, January 1979, 7.
110. Interview with Sequoia Powers.
111. The mailing list for Dinah began at twenty-eight in 1974 and neared four hundred by 1978. Dinah, September 1978, 2-3.
112. Wendy Winkler to Lesbian Herstory Archives, May 24, 1978, LAB files, OLA.
113. Dinah, June 1976, 13, July 1976, 3, September 1978, 5, October 1978, 15, March 1979, 20, and November 1979, 9.
114. Dinah, February 1977, 9. As the women's movement had rediscovered women in history who were strong and independent, lesbian feminists likewise studied and adopted lesbians of the past, a category in which they placed Sappho, Amazons, Gertrude Stein, Natalie Barney (a native of Ohio), and many others. Reclaiming historical lesbians was as popular as imagining lesbians everywhere. In one issue of Dinah, the cover story was an interview with "Ms. Dyke," a mock-candidate for the U.S. presidency. Dinah, October 1976, 1-3.
115. Dinah, February 1977, 9. As the women's movement had rediscovered women in history who were strong and independent, lesbian feminists likewise studied and adopted lesbians of the past, a category in which they placed Sappho, Amazons, Gertrude Stein, Natalie Barney (a native of Ohio), and many others. Reclaiming historical lesbians was as popular as imagining lesbians everywhere. In one issue of Dinah, the cover story was an interview with "Ms. Dyke," a mock-candidate for the U.S. presidency. Dinah, October 1976, 1-3.
116. Dinah, June 1976, 13, and May 1979, 23.
117. Dinah, November 1979, 9.
118. Dinah, March 1977, 8.
119. Dinah, February 1977, 19-20, and April 1977; also "A List," August 2, 1979, LAB files, OLA.
120. Dinah, February 1977, 19-20, and April 1977; also "A List," August 2, 1979, LAB files, OLA.
121. In May 1977, LAB won a $295 scholarship, granted by the Ohio Department of Economic and Community Development. The scholarship allowed LAB director Sandie Garsey to participate in a week-long grants training seminar; according to Wendy Winkler, it marked "the first time a homosexual group has received such recognition from a state department." Dinah, May/June 1977, 11. Later that year, the Internal Revenue Service awarded LAB 501 (c) (3) status, in a November 1977 letter addressed "Gentlemen." Dinah, March 1978, 2. These successes were also reported in Gay Community News, June 11, 1977, 2, and December 24, 1977, 12.
122. In May 1977, LAB won a $295 scholarship, granted by the Ohio Department of Economic and Community Development. The scholarship allowed LAB director Sandie Garsey to participate in a week-long grants training seminar; according to Wendy Winkler, it marked "the first time a homosexual group has received such recognition from a state department." Dinah, May/June 1977, 11. Later that year, the Internal Revenue Service awarded LAB 501 (c) (3) status, in a November 1977 letter addressed "Gentlemen." Dinah, March 1978, 2. These successes were also reported in Gay Community News, June 11, 1977, 2, and December 24, 1977, 12.
123. In May 1977, LAB won a $295 scholarship, granted by the Ohio Department of Economic and Community Development. The scholarship allowed LAB director Sandie Garsey to participate in a week-long grants training seminar; according to Wendy Winkler, it marked "the first time a homosexual group has received such recognition from a state department." Dinah, May/June 1977, 11. Later that year, the Internal Revenue Service awarded LAB 501 (c) (3) status, in a November 1977 letter addressed "Gentlemen." Dinah, March 1978, 2. These successes were also reported in Gay Community News, June 11, 1977, 2, and December 24, 1977, 12.
124. LAB produced a ten-page document for distribution at the Ohio IWY conference and inclusion in the October 1977 issue of Dinah. The pamphlet included material about lesbian and gay history, legal rights, education, health, social and cultural issues, and media; a resource list of lesbian and gay organizations and literature; lesbian resolutions for IWY; and candidate profiles of two Columbus and two Cincinnati lesbians.
125. Ruthanne [Roller] introduced herself to the readers of Dinah in the October 1977 issue. By January 1979, when the CETA funding was being cut back, Roller announced her resignation. WHW monthly mailing, January 1979, Newsletters/Announcements, 1975-1980 folder, UC archives. The description of Women Helping Women is from a document entitled "Women Helping Women: Introduction and History" (n.d.), History, By-Laws, General Information folder, UC archives.
126. Some examples of the local attention come from the March 1977 issue: an interview with former Labyris member Marie Dennis, entitled "Observations of a Black Lesbian Feminist"; "Cincinnati Lesbian Mother Contact," a paragraph submitted by a woman hoping to form a lesbian mothers group; a story on "Femicides" in Cincinnati - violent crimes against women committed by heterosexual men; and "Take a look behind the scenes in Cincinnati," an article based on an interview with the owner of the gay bar, Darwin's. Dinah, March 1977, 1-7, 9, 16.
127. "The Great Snake Controversy," imagining different feminist and lesbian stances toward snakes, was a "pet" project of Garsey's over several issues. Complete with biblical and phallic connotations, Garsey's articles and mock responses played with a variety of positions on snakes, perhaps as a parody of political correctness. In one case, she wrote "if . . . a fifteen foot boa came up to me and said 'Eat the apple,' you can be damn sure I'm going to eat the apple." In a letter from "Pat Rattles," Garsey defended snakes by holding that half of them were female and some might even be feminists. Dinah, August 1976, 6-8.
128. Dinah, March 1977, 19.
129. Dinah, May/June 1977, 9.
130. Dinah, July 1979, 1. Emphasis in original.
131. Dinah, July 1979, and September 1979, 17.
132. Dinah, September 1979, 17, 20. Emphasis in original.
133. Dinah, January/February 1980, 11.
134. Dinah, September 1979, 22.
135. Dinah, September 1975, 15.
136. Some teenagers may have been exposed to lesbians in Women Helping Women through the organization's outreach to high school girls, or they may have attended concerts open to the public. "Minutes from staff meeting of WHW/RCC," November 9, 1975, Minutes 1975-1979 folder, UC archives. Susan Hilgendorf suggests that younger women attended Therese Edell's performances. "A List of Aspirations and Goals" for the Lesbian Activist Bureau included "Teen group - look for people/radio show outreach," but apparently no individual had attached her name to working on a teen group. "A List," August 2, 1979, LAB files, OLA. The Yellow Page listed a group entitled Great American Youth (GAY) in mid-1979, but there is no indication that young women or girls were involved with the group. Yellow Page, July 1979.
137. The women I interviewed were educated well beyond the norm, as indicated above.
138. Dinah, November 1979, 1.
139. Kennedy and Davis employ the term "prepolitical" to recognize the political implications of social activities in lesbian bar communities in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Their terminology, however, makes more sense in that historical context than it does in the 1970s. Lesbian bar communities in the 1970s might be construed as having political significance and were certainly part of a "culture of resistance," but are differentiated from lesbian feminist and gay activist communities, which possessed, as they put it, a "long-term analysis of and strategy for ending the oppression of gays and lesbians in America and changing the world." See Kennedy and Davis, Boots of Leather, 6, 183-90, quotation on 186.
140. Groups included the Berkeley Women's Music Collective, River City Womin, and Alive! Perhaps the best recognized title among women's music is "Lavender Jane Loves Women," Alix Dobkin's hit album among lesbian feminists. The alternate spellings of "woman" and "women," removing the root word for man, were especially popular in women's music circles. Accordingly, the Michigan festival is the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.
141. For instance, Woody Simmons and Nancy Vogl performed in "marvelous harmony," played "fine instrumentals from the traditions of folk and mountain music," and "did a union organizing song that sent chills up my spine." They changed the lyrics of one song "to fit into a lesbian feminist perspective... [from] 'two maids lyin' in bed, wishin' one was a man' to 'one rolled over and said, Why don't we make love?'" Dinah, June 1978. 22. One of my reviewers with a greater knowledge and appreciation of women's music adds her impressions of its values: "warm, fuzzy sisterhood; role models, humorous (e.g. gym teachers) and serious (e.g. Third World women warriors); cats as children and friends; reciprocity in relationships; surviving trauma."
142. Interview with Marianne Henry (pseud.).
143. It is worth noting here that oral history interviews are not entirely reliable as sources, because they are marked by present concerns (and resentments) along with lapses of memory that may not best represent what was happening at the time. Another issue to consider is that I interviewed women who were willing to talk about themselves as lesbian feminists in the 1970s. This would necessarily exclude the memories of women who denied that they were lesbians or adopted bisexual or heterosexual identities. Kennedy and Davis deal with these problems in their oral history project. Kennedy and Davis, Boots of Leather, 15-25.
144. Interview with Barbara Jean Davis (pseudonym), December 21, 1994. Davis is a white lesbian active in the women clerical workers' union, District 925.
145. Interview with Pat Evans (pseudonym), January 30, 1995. Evans is an African American lesbian mother, active on the Dinah staff in the early 1980s.
146. Interview with Susan Hilgendorf.
147. Dinah, March 1977, 3-4.
148. Dinah, November 1979, 9.
149. Some of these perspectives have been included in this paper, but my interviews are not comprehensive of the range of lesbian lives in Cincinnati during the 1970s. We need to know more about older and younger lesbians, lesbians of various ethnic and religious backgrounds, working-class lesbians, "bar dykes," closeted lesbians, lesbians who did not stay in Cincinnati, transgendered lesbians, those who rejected feminism, and those who came to identify as straight. Examining a greater diversity of women would result in a better understanding of how class and race are key to the construction of lesbian feminist communities.