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• 1 media/IMG_2722 copy.jpeg 2022-06-06T07:11:05-07:00 What does it mean to be a Lesbian? 21 gallery 2023-04-20T06:07:19-07:00 Out of all of the commonly recognized queer communities, lesbians have been among the most visible for the longest time, and have gone through the most radical change in culture. Existing primarily as a word for the experience of women loving women, inside the community lesbians have been challenging gendered labels, presentations, and expectations longer than anyone. As queerness has diversified however, culture has homogenized leading to the disappearance of some of the key traits that once marked the community, such as Lesbian specific bars, a strong alternative community in response to societal rejection, and a semi-rigid system of roles. While today the term lesbian provides identity to many people, one can only imagine what it will mean to be a lesbian in the future.
  Lesbians represent a significant challenge to cultural norms and expectations for the role of women in society by decentralizing the role of men in their relationships allowing for a greater diversity of experiences. As a consequence of this, lesbians have historically faced a significant amount of stigma forcing them out of most spaces. This, however, encouraged lesbians to build their own culture and define the roles they want to pursue in society.
  Lesbians Through History           Lesbians and Queerness                             
                     
  
  
• 1 media/IMG_2843 copy.jpeg 2022-06-30T12:19:20-07:00 1960's and 70's 11 plain 2023-04-20T06:21:13-07:00 The 1960's and 70's represent the first time that queerness was visible in the United States. Government workers including Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings fought to bring an end to legal government discrimination and harassment. Gay rights organizations used respectability politics and argued they were the same as any one else to campaign for if not equality at least to be left alone. Growing queer rights riots including the Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-in, and the Compton's Cafeteria Riot both in California demanded a more radical acceptance based off of other movement's political actions, such as the Black power, civil rights, and women's rights movements.
  Media publicity, that for decades had been used to dox and shame queer people, costing jobs, family and security gradually changed in light of these acts of revolt. The stonewall riots especially, served retrospectively as a launching point for the nascent gay rights movement. Fighting against a named oppression and societal expectations gave a rallying point for queer people who had before been mostly isolated and afraid.
  In the 1970's the first comic books by out lesbian women were published by Mary Wings and Roberta Gregory. Calls for community only continued to grow. The 70's represented a massive surge of queer activism and revolution as queer people found each other and began to build out community, from queer unions on college campuses, to drag and ballroom culture in major cities.