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• 1 2021-02-20T19:18:29-08:00 Striving for Trans-Inclusion 10 plain 2022-01-18T20:07:52-08:00

  
  Curve’s writers and photographers documented their community’s diverse gender presentation and increasingly embraced trans inclusivity over the years. Stevens told Buzzfeed that Curve was radical within lesbian culture for including women who wore makeup, grew long hair, or had children, all of which seem obvious today. [1] At the same time, Curve regularly included positive depictions of androgynous and butch lesbians.
  
  
  
  The publication explored the continuum of butch and transgender identity early on, in its groundbreaking interview with Stone Butch Blues author Leslie Feinberg, who told Victoria Brownworth in August of 1993:
   

  “I am a woman, I am a butch, I am attracted by high- femme. Does that mean who I am is defined solely by those aspects of me? [We] have such narrow definitions of who we are as a community. I want to see that broadened.” - Leslie Feinberg [2]

  In September of 2006, Curve published a series of articles by transgender people, their lovers, and family members, to start a dialogue within the lesbian community. Editor Diane Anderson Minshall had a personal stake in such conversations after her partner transitioned. Minshall writes about she struggled “to maintain [her] identity as a lesbian (or a lesbian-identified bisexual) without invalidating [her] partner's identity as a man.” [3] Sonja Elen Kisa taught readers the basics of transgender identity and explained how lesbians could avoid transphobic behaviors like asking questions about surgery and conflating transgender individuals with crossdressers in “How to Respect a Transsexual Person.” [4] The issue also included an interview with Kate Bornstein, and articles on trans documentaries and trans activists “every dyke should know about.” This issue demonstrated that Curve respected difference and strived to unite the lesbian and queer community.
  
  
   

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  [1] Bianco, Marcie. “This Is What 25 Years Of Lesbian Culture In Print Looks Like.” BuzzFeed. Accessed December 22, 2020. https://www.buzzfeed.com/marcieb4f1ba695b/25-years-of-lesbian-culture-curve-magazine.
  [2] Brownworth, Victoria A. "Leslie Feinberg and Transgender Liberation,” Denueve, August 1993.
  [3] Anderson-Minshall, Diane. “Gender 101” Curve, vol. 16, no. 7, Sept. 2006, p. 52.
  [4] Eager, Jo. “How to Respect a Transsexual Person,” Curve, vol. 16, no. 7, Sept. 2006, p. 53-55
• 1 media/curve-exhibit-23-005.jpg 2020-12-29T13:52:15-08:00 Creating a First Class Lesbian Magazine 5 image_header 2021-01-30T13:53:27-08:00

  In February 1990, 22-year-old lesbian bookstore clerk Franco Stevens took a leap of faith and developed a groundbreaking national lesbian magazine without financial backers. Franco saw a desperate need for a specifically lesbian magazine, the kind she looked for after she came out a year earlier and heard other women request when she worked at A Different Light bookstore. After she decided to "stop complaining and do it herself,” Stevens diligently studied publishing and miraculously raised the funds she needed for the first issue at the horse races. When she put a flier reading “Writers and photographers wanted for new lesbian magazine” at the bookstore, over 300 people responded. 

  In May 1991, the first issue of Deneuve finally launched, with 32 pages full of stories about lesbian politicians, teachers, and musicians, travel, dating, love, and everyday lesbian life. Editor Katie Sanborn posed for the cover sporting sunglasses. Stevens envisioned a lesbian mainstream glossy magazine because “I was so sick of lesbians [being] treated like second class citizens. If I was going to do something I was going to do it so that we were represented as first-class, as having something nice for once.” Denueve mixed satirical columns like “Lesbo File” and “Dyke Drama” and celebrity cover stories with thoughtful reporting on struggles for civil rights and conflict and change within the community.

  The few ads in the 3,000 print first run included one for Stevens’ father’s computer company and one for the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, but it was a hit with readers. The magazine’s subscriber count grew as Stevens partnered with lesbian feminist publisher Barbara Grier to include a subscription form in Naiad Press’ newsletter and conducted numerous cross country tours.  In April 1992 Deneuve moved from an editor’s living room into an office space in San Francisco's South of Market District, and hired their first employee managing editor Zelie Pollon.  By 1995 Denueve was the nation’s best selling lesbian magazine with a print run of 60,000 and mainstream advertisers.

  Despite its success, the magazine faced censorship from state officials and distributors alike. Canadian customs officials rejected the January/February 1992 issue for displaying nude images by photographer Nina Glaser. Glaser described nude images as “more honest and real” than clothed ones, and as artistic rather than erotic. An October 1994 issue featuring a topless Marga Gomez was sold in the South in blue plastic wrappers after a distributor complained. Despite these challenges, Stevens’ grassroots promotion strategy brought the magazine to rural and conservative areas where the magazine was some women’s only contact with the lesbian community. 

  The magazine’s greatest challenge became its name, after French actress Catherine Deneuve sued the company for trademark infringement in 1995. Stevens claimed the name was inspired by her first girlfriend from summer camp, but litigation expenses forced Stevens to change the name to Curve in February of 1996. With help from the community, including the celebrity attendees of the "Alive and Kicking" legal aid benefit, the magazine continued to report on the queer life, love, community, culture, and politics for years to come.
  

• 1 media/davis.jpg 2021-02-20T16:51:33-08:00 Representing Lesbian Love 5 image_header 2021-02-20T17:38:08-08:00

  In each issue, Deneuve’s writers and advice columnists provided sex positive and empowering perspectives on lesbian love and sexuality. 

  Readers sought relationship advice from the “Ask Fairy Butch” column from the fall of 1996 onwards. The columnist offered advice on issues ranging from lesbian bed death and incorporating toys in the bedroom to finding representative lesbian pornography to avoiding sexually transmitted diseases. 
  One of Curve’s most popular features was its photo contest, which began in 1995. The photographs illustrated many aspects of lesbian and queer life, from romance to travel to domestic life and pet ownership. This process was meaningful to both readers and staff. As the January 1997 issue described, 

  “Once again, we invited you to send us photographs reflecting any and all aspects of lesbian life and once again almost a thousand images flooded into our office, bringing new meaning and power to lesbian visibility. Selecting the winners was a labor of love – so many beautiful women, so many emotions: from laughter, to love, to solitude, to friendship, to celebration and beyond.”