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• 1 2021-02-20T20:35:19-08:00 Protest and Politics 20 image_header 2024-07-20T20:34:15-07:00

  Curve spotlighted many lesbian political pioneers while also amplifying grassroots movements for LGBTQ civil rights.

  In the early 1990s, some lesbians gained access to political power in Washington while radical lesbian organizers fought for both survival and visibility on the streets. Deneuve covered these developments, from the first Dyke March led by the Lesbian Avengers to legal victories for lesbian rights across the country. 
  

  In October 1993, Katie Brown interviewed the highest ranking lesbian in the U.S government, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Roberta Achtenberg, while Mary Ann Swissler profiled Seattle city councilwoman Sherry Harris, the first Black lesbian official in the country, in April 1995. [1] The magazine’s writers covered a wide range of policies that affected the community including marriage equality, discrimination in the military, lesbian child custody battles, adoption laws, and hate crimes. [2]

  
  

  The magazine did not forget the community’s roots and highlighted historical and contemporary activism on the streets. Lesbian activists Ana Simo, Sarah Schulman, Maxine Wolfe, Anne-christine d'Adesky, Marie Honan, and Anne Maguire founded the direct action activist organization The Lesbian Avengers in New York in 1992, which led the first Dyke March a year later at the 1993 March on Washington. [3] The magazine joined the first Dyke March and hosted a wildly successful “Aftershock” dance party following the event, which attracted over 3,000 community members. [4] Years later, Maria De La O reported on the Avengers’ creative direct action tactics in protest of conversation therapy group Exodus International, which involved live crickets. [5] The June 1994 issue commemorated the 25th anniversary of Stonewall by interviewing lesbian activists about what 1969 meant to them. Joan Nestle recalled standing in front of the bar holding hands with her lover on the second night of the uprising. [6] 

  The February 2004 issue marked a turning point for LGBTQ politics, the beginning of the legalization of marriage equality.

  
  The issue included an 11 page wedding special including both interviews with new legal partners and dissident feminist critiques of marriage. When Gavin Newsom legalized marriage regardless of gender, editors Gretchen Lee and Diane Anderson Minshall and their partners took part in the first wave of legal marriages at San Francisco City Hall. [7] These portraits featured comments about marriage equality from community members. 
  

  Even as the magazine and community changed, the spirit of groups like the Lesbian Avengers lived on as the editors strove to amplify the voices of young queer activists. 
   

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  [1] Lee, Gretchen. "All our best." Curve, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000
  [2] Gonsoulin, Margaret E. “Liberated and Inclusive? An Analysis of Self-Representation in a Popular Lesbian Magazine.” Journal of Homosexuality 57, no. 9 (September 30, 2010): 1171.
  [3] 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): 121.
  [4] Lee, Gretchen. "All our best." Curve, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000
  [5] De La O, Maria. “A Plague on You.” Deneuve, June 1995. 
  [6] Brandt, Kate. “It Wasn’t One More Raid.” Deneuve, vol. 4 no. 4, June 1994. 
  [7] "Here Come the Brides." Curve, vol. 14 no 2, February 2004.