National Coming Out Day
The history of LGBTQ+ people in America focuses on white gay men. For this women's history newsletter, let's look at some queer women's history.
- The Daughters of Bilitis. The Daughters was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the US. It was founded in San Francisco in 1955 and lasted until 1969, i.e. four years before the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) removed homosexuality from its list.
From the start they had a clear focus to educate other women about lesbians, and reduce their self-loathing brought on by the socially repressive times.
These women were unbelievably brave and I don't know how they did what they did. The name of the group comes from an extremely nerdy lesbian reference, i.e. a fictional contemporary of Sappho conceived of in an 1894 French poem The Song of Bilitis. Great job, ladies.
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Sylvia Rivera. While Rivera hated labels ("PEople now want to call me a lesbian because I'm with Julia, and I say, "No. I'm just me. I'm not a lesbian.") she is now known to history as a Latina transgender activist. After living on the streets in New York City, she co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) with her friend Marsha P. Johnson -- this group was dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens, gay youth, and trans women.
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The Only Conviction in American History.
In 1649 in Plymouth Colony, Sarah White Norman and Mary Vincent Hammon were prosecuted for "lewd behavior with each other upon a bed"; their trial documents are the only known record of sex between female English colonists in North America in the 17th century. Hammon was only admonished, perhaps because she was younger than sixteen, but in 1650 Norman was convicted and required to acknowledge publicly her "unchaste behavior" with Hammon, as well as warned against future offenses. This may be the only conviction for lesbianism in American history. (x)
If you're interested in further reading, there's basically every book by Lillian Faderman, including Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America and Black. Queer. Southern. Women.: An Oral History by E. Patrick Johnson, as well as a slew of others.