Lesbians Through History
When lesbians from the war effort were re-integrated back into society, after the war, those that could not be married off were often hospitalized in an attempt to cure them, or pushed out, inspiring them to start to build out their own communities and support systems. At the time lesbian women were divided into two baseless, unscientific classes of lesbian, congenital and acquired inverts. Congenital being women who were irreparably broken lesbian from birth, and acquired inverts who were seduced and hypnotized by congenital inverts but could still be made straight with appropriate treatment. The women who were cast out from society however began to make and create representation for themselves, publishing books and increasing visibility.
As lesbians began to feel more comfortable existing in public settings new and differentiated ways of thinking of themselves such as butch/femme emerged. When the era of revolution happened in the 70's and 80's with both the gay rights movement and early third wave feminism, lesbians surged into the mainstream: star athletes could be lesbians, as could your plumber.
While few wanted their daughters to be a lesbian, they became visible and if not accepted then tolerated. The Combahee River Collective Statement, a manifesto by Black lesbians, introduced the idea of intersectionality to call for the integration of women of color and lesbians into feminist movements. It stated that while women largely faced the same problems in sexism, some women faced additional challenges as a consequence of other elements of their identity—especially race —-that were not being recognized.
Over time, the revolutionary movements ran out of steam as a new generation of lesbians chose not to follow in their predecessors footprints while inter-community arguments tore older lesbian groups apart. In the 90's without the constant pressing threat of elimination from the religious right,
lesbians became significantly more focused on loving each other and staying out of the public eye even as cultural moments like the Ellen show brought them more into it. Cartoonists like Allison Bechdel and Paige Braddock detailed this era extensively in their comics, Dykes To Watch Out For and Jane’s World.
In the 2000's lesbian visibility was hitting its peak, and lesbians were discovering and sharing their identities earlier and earlier. It’s important to distinguish that while lesbians throughout history generally knew they were gay early on, most of the time they didn't have the language to describe their experiences. Often women who came out in their teenage years would face severe repercussions, from being sent to conversion therapy camps, to being thrown out of their homes, to being totally cut off from any and all friends – some were even killed for their identities.
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At the time lesbians were seen as predatory and a threat to any girl they were around—mirroring the invert narrative of decades prior. This was particularly a problem in schools, and often coming out even with a supportive family would mean losing everything.
In the mid 2010's with the passage of Obergefell V. Hodges, the Supreme Court made same sex marriage federally legal. Attitudes very quickly changed and for the most part outside of fundamentalist spaces lesbians are welcomed in as just another facet of what it means to be human.
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