30 Years of Lesbian Life in Curve Magazine

Lesbian Chic and Celebrity Culture

Deneuve emerged in a period when certain lesbians gained unprecedented visibility in popular culture. The phenomenon of “lesbian chic” stemmed from events including the 1992 release of the movie Basic Instinct and the popularity of numerous out celebrities like K.D Lang. [1] With its glossy covers often featuring celebrities, Deneuve helped propel lesbians into the mainstream while also attempting to emphasize the diversity of the community. Recently out singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge graced the cover of the December 1993 issue, followed by musicians like Ani DiFranco, K.D Lang, and the Indigo Girls, athletes like Kristen Cummings and Amelie Mauresmo, and actors like Amber Benson, Jennifer Beals, Laurel Holloman, and Sonja Sohn. Melissa Etheridge came out on a 1993 cover, The Indigo Girls' Amy Ray in 1998, Sinead O'Conner in 2000, Aubrey O'Day in 2009 and Chely Wright in 2010. Gretchen Lee’s December 1999 profile of Etheridge won the magazine a Best Rock Reporting award at the Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA). In other cases, Curve discovered future stars. The magazine interviewed a young purple haired Rachel Maddow, who discussed being the first out Rhoades Scholar, in 1995. [2]

In 2010, editor-in-chief Dianne Anderson Mitchell reflected on the past and future of the magazine and urged the community to remember the everyday queer women who impacted their lives and the richness of their history. 

“Too often at Curve--at all magazines, in fact--we're forced to focus on what's new, who's hot, which celebrity has come out recently. Don't get me wrong, I like some of that. My proudest moments in the last two decades, have been when women have come out to me, to the public and spoken out about who they were for the first time…But beyond the celebrity headlines, the work we spent on this issue and all the stories and memories it brought back, reminds me that we need to do a better job of remembering where we came from, and the women who got us here.”  -  Diane Anderson-Minshall [3]


This essay hinted at another conflict within both the magazine and community, the struggle for trans inclusion. Trans men were not included in Curve’s list of “queer women who changed our lives,” but Anderson-Minshall admitted “their omission feels grave as well.” The magazine covered a continuum of queer gender identities, including both butch women and transgender men.  

[1] Rand, Erin J. “An Appetite for Activism: The Lesbian Avengers and the Queer Politics of Visibility.” Women’s Studies in Communication 36, no. 2 (June 2013): 125. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.2013.794754.
[2] Vermeer, Nicole, and Anna Belle Peterson. "By the numbers: how the last 20 years have measured up." Curve, vol. 20, no. 8, Oct. 2010, p. 41.
[3] Anderson-Minshall, Diane. "From the editor." Curve, vol. 20, no. 8, Oct. 2010, p. 9.

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