Transcribe
Translate
Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-07-10 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 11
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
[hand drawn] Out of the Closets & Into the Streets . . . Gay St. Christopher St. I am a lesbian. I am beautiful. I am your worst fear. I am your best fantasy. Gay is 'mmmm Grroovy Lesbians are Lovable Hi Mom! Women Turn on to your beautiful sisters! Your daughter is marching with us. Lavender Menace Sappho was a right on woman! You don't have to be gay to like our Sisters Unite This weekend several sisters went to the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Days in New York City, the first birthday of the Gay Liberation movement. One year ago, when the Stonewall, an after hours gay bar in NYC, was raided, the homosexual community reacted with open anger and violence against their oppressors. Since that time gay women and men in over 300 cities have discarded their life style of closet schizophrenia and are developing new consciousness. We stayed at the Lesbian Center (also known as the Church of the Holy Apostles) which was provided by women from Lesbian Liberation, a new coalition of gay women who found they weren't allowed enough freedom in the male dominated Gay Liberation Front. On the first day of the celebration there was a workshop on Lesbianism and Feminism or as it was called by some The Place of Feminism in Lesbian Liberation. On Saturday evening gay women gathered at the center for a communal supper. We had a conversation with two women from Daughters of Bilitis, a national homophile organization, who had just returned from Bettendorf, Iowa where they talked to women there about starting a chapter of DOB. The thought that there are 100-150 women in Bettendorf interested in coming together is really exciting. Right-On sisters! We also met four sisters from Washington D.C. and discussed two divisions between people: Male/Female and Gay/Straight. We mostly agreed that the biggest gap was female/male and that gay women should only ally with gay men in so far as the relation remains unoppressive, however, one GLF woman, who strongly hopes the Gay Liberation Front doesn't split along sex lines, thought that gay people who feel a common oppression must stick together to fight it. Politically we found ourselves more or less together with the sisters from Lesbian Liberation. However, the All Women's Dances on Fri. and Sat. nights pointed out to us how differently we relate socially to each other in the midwest. We never dance with each other because there are no places in Iowa City where gay women can be together. It was so beautiful seeing women dancing with each other and meaning so much to each other. Coming as total strangers, we also were involved in the feeling of community giving us the impression that it was the fact that we were women and human beings and not close personal friends that was the basis for this affection. We were wondering if the reason we could express our feelings for each other was because we weren't inhibited by social taboos that keep women apart. These dances are a defiant political statement by all who dance: Will will love whom we please! On Sunday there was a triumphant march of thousands of homosexuals and lesbians up Sixth Ave to a Gay-In in Central Park. We marched arm in arm under a banner of Lesbians Unite and chanted: "out of the closets and into the streets" to the imprsoned on-lookers. The meeting Friday night was entited "The Lesbian in the Feminist Movement" and was to me one of those sad experiences where people divide themselves from one another either due to misunderstandings or alienation. I think both of these factors entered into this meeting. The gay people had gathered to discuss their reaction to Ti-Grace Atkinson who had spoken to the Daughters of Bilitis the night before. The fact that Ti-Grace had not been able to deal with lesbianism, and for that matter many other women in the feminist movement, caused a great deal of hostility to appear. Gay women felt that Women's Liberation people were more concerned with day care, equal job opportunities, and a general equal respect status that is now occupied by men. They want to work toward this, and still live with a man. Thus, as the gay women see it, Women's Liberation is for straight, married women who will continue to stay straight and married. The needs of the lesbian don't coincide with these demands. Gay oppression both legally and socailly is of their utmost concern. Straight women in women's liberation still being unable to deal with lesbianism aren't any different than any straight women who take part in the oppression of other women. Therefore many of the gay women don't want to ally or work in any part of the feminists movement. Also the concept and structure of role playing in the gay world was come down on extremely hard by the feminists. This attack of life style alienated many of the women, one because that was the way they dealt with living and combatting their own oppression, and two because they see that married women also revert into their own form of role playing which they call security. This struck many of the gay women as being hypocritical. As I sat there as both a lesbian and feminist I felt a real sorrow and hopelessness that this division had to occur. Perhaps it is inevitable and imperative that lesbians decide between the two movements. However, at this point I don't see that it is. Lesbians are women, and by definition an intricate part of women's liberation. They are women who do not need men and therefore are removed in their personal orientation from the male dominated society. They are also strong women who have lived with an obvious and blatant oppression for the entire extent of their sexual life. Lesbians have experienced women's oppression simply because they don't need men and haven't been "protected" by being treated as a privileged sex. The oppression of women loving women is a powerful political tool. If women can live without men than they cannot be dominated by them. And when male dominated society prescribes that women cannot love women, it is merely using a technique of all oppressors, divide the oppressed and they will always be weak. Women who have been taught that lesbians are sub human, that they are perverted or inferior are merely placing the values of the oppressors into their own heads and thus reinforcing the divisions among all the oppressed women. This is why it is imperative for all women to deal with lesbianism, with homosexuality where the primary love both emotional and sexual is directed toward a person of the same sex. It is not good enough for straight women to say that they do love women and then turn to give their ultimate love to their oppressor. [hand drawn banner] LESBIANS UNITE a Woman? [hand drawn arm] July 10k, 1970 11
Saving...
prev
next
[hand drawn] Out of the Closets & Into the Streets . . . Gay St. Christopher St. I am a lesbian. I am beautiful. I am your worst fear. I am your best fantasy. Gay is 'mmmm Grroovy Lesbians are Lovable Hi Mom! Women Turn on to your beautiful sisters! Your daughter is marching with us. Lavender Menace Sappho was a right on woman! You don't have to be gay to like our Sisters Unite This weekend several sisters went to the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Days in New York City, the first birthday of the Gay Liberation movement. One year ago, when the Stonewall, an after hours gay bar in NYC, was raided, the homosexual community reacted with open anger and violence against their oppressors. Since that time gay women and men in over 300 cities have discarded their life style of closet schizophrenia and are developing new consciousness. We stayed at the Lesbian Center (also known as the Church of the Holy Apostles) which was provided by women from Lesbian Liberation, a new coalition of gay women who found they weren't allowed enough freedom in the male dominated Gay Liberation Front. On the first day of the celebration there was a workshop on Lesbianism and Feminism or as it was called by some The Place of Feminism in Lesbian Liberation. On Saturday evening gay women gathered at the center for a communal supper. We had a conversation with two women from Daughters of Bilitis, a national homophile organization, who had just returned from Bettendorf, Iowa where they talked to women there about starting a chapter of DOB. The thought that there are 100-150 women in Bettendorf interested in coming together is really exciting. Right-On sisters! We also met four sisters from Washington D.C. and discussed two divisions between people: Male/Female and Gay/Straight. We mostly agreed that the biggest gap was female/male and that gay women should only ally with gay men in so far as the relation remains unoppressive, however, one GLF woman, who strongly hopes the Gay Liberation Front doesn't split along sex lines, thought that gay people who feel a common oppression must stick together to fight it. Politically we found ourselves more or less together with the sisters from Lesbian Liberation. However, the All Women's Dances on Fri. and Sat. nights pointed out to us how differently we relate socially to each other in the midwest. We never dance with each other because there are no places in Iowa City where gay women can be together. It was so beautiful seeing women dancing with each other and meaning so much to each other. Coming as total strangers, we also were involved in the feeling of community giving us the impression that it was the fact that we were women and human beings and not close personal friends that was the basis for this affection. We were wondering if the reason we could express our feelings for each other was because we weren't inhibited by social taboos that keep women apart. These dances are a defiant political statement by all who dance: Will will love whom we please! On Sunday there was a triumphant march of thousands of homosexuals and lesbians up Sixth Ave to a Gay-In in Central Park. We marched arm in arm under a banner of Lesbians Unite and chanted: "out of the closets and into the streets" to the imprsoned on-lookers. The meeting Friday night was entited "The Lesbian in the Feminist Movement" and was to me one of those sad experiences where people divide themselves from one another either due to misunderstandings or alienation. I think both of these factors entered into this meeting. The gay people had gathered to discuss their reaction to Ti-Grace Atkinson who had spoken to the Daughters of Bilitis the night before. The fact that Ti-Grace had not been able to deal with lesbianism, and for that matter many other women in the feminist movement, caused a great deal of hostility to appear. Gay women felt that Women's Liberation people were more concerned with day care, equal job opportunities, and a general equal respect status that is now occupied by men. They want to work toward this, and still live with a man. Thus, as the gay women see it, Women's Liberation is for straight, married women who will continue to stay straight and married. The needs of the lesbian don't coincide with these demands. Gay oppression both legally and socailly is of their utmost concern. Straight women in women's liberation still being unable to deal with lesbianism aren't any different than any straight women who take part in the oppression of other women. Therefore many of the gay women don't want to ally or work in any part of the feminists movement. Also the concept and structure of role playing in the gay world was come down on extremely hard by the feminists. This attack of life style alienated many of the women, one because that was the way they dealt with living and combatting their own oppression, and two because they see that married women also revert into their own form of role playing which they call security. This struck many of the gay women as being hypocritical. As I sat there as both a lesbian and feminist I felt a real sorrow and hopelessness that this division had to occur. Perhaps it is inevitable and imperative that lesbians decide between the two movements. However, at this point I don't see that it is. Lesbians are women, and by definition an intricate part of women's liberation. They are women who do not need men and therefore are removed in their personal orientation from the male dominated society. They are also strong women who have lived with an obvious and blatant oppression for the entire extent of their sexual life. Lesbians have experienced women's oppression simply because they don't need men and haven't been "protected" by being treated as a privileged sex. The oppression of women loving women is a powerful political tool. If women can live without men than they cannot be dominated by them. And when male dominated society prescribes that women cannot love women, it is merely using a technique of all oppressors, divide the oppressed and they will always be weak. Women who have been taught that lesbians are sub human, that they are perverted or inferior are merely placing the values of the oppressors into their own heads and thus reinforcing the divisions among all the oppressed women. This is why it is imperative for all women to deal with lesbianism, with homosexuality where the primary love both emotional and sexual is directed toward a person of the same sex. It is not good enough for straight women to say that they do love women and then turn to give their ultimate love to their oppressor. [hand drawn banner] LESBIANS UNITE a Woman? [hand drawn arm] July 10k, 1970 11
Campus Culture
sidebar
