Billie Jean King will go down as one of the greatest tennis players — one of the greatest athletes, actually — of all time. 39 Grand Slam titles. 20 Wimbledon victories. And, of course, her Battle of the Sexes win over Bobby Riggs, which sold out the Astrodome and was viewed by more than 90 million people.
“I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence, and community.”
“Marriage is a magic word. And it is magic throughout the world. It has to do with our dignity as human beings, to be who we are.”
Barbara Hammer was the evidence that living a queer life could be good, and long, and full of wonder at a time when I felt like this was all was out of reach.
In 1974 it felt like every American was watching President Nixon’s impeachment hearings. With a single speech, a black lesbian changed the opinion of a nation. She was only getting started.
Maybe Josephine Baker and Frida Kahlo were actually lovers? Maybe they weren’t. What always mattered most was the idea that they even could.
Despite her early resonance, Hothead Paisan has faded from lesbian and queer cultural memory. Today we’re bringing her back.
Demonic witch queens are always queer. Fact.
Shaven heads on women have challenged and informed ideas of beauty, power and tradition for centuries. Here’s the history of a very queer style.
The age-old challenge: what to get for your rad, free-thinking, take-no-BS, burn down the cisheteropatriarchy, revolutionary friend or loved one? Capitalism sucks. These gifts don’t!
Eleanor Roosevelt, Frida Kahlo, Naomi “Micky” Jacob, Elsie de Wolfe and Elisabeth Marbury — and their puppers!
The first time I googled “bisexual history,” one of the top hits was an article called “Are you worried your partner might have a bisexual history?”
The weekend Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court, I visited the Lesbian Herstory Archives and spent the day with coordinators Maxine and Saskia to learn about our past and draw strength in the present.
Lilith after all has become a sign of every socially unacceptable aspect of women, including and especially our sexuality.
For too long, Tove Jansson’s lesbianism has been ignored or written out of history. But scratch the surface, and the true impact of her queerness on her work becomes apparent.
It’s LGBTQ History Month, and not a moment too soon! It’s absolutely necessary at this moment in time to remember some of the icons of our collective queer past who have overcome all kinds of adversity to change the world and our individual lives.
I want to devour everything that came before us so we can continue to grow better, brighter, louder, closer. These Instagram accounts are a great place to start.
Each of these small bits of history made me hungry for more information, and brought home how many stories — especially those about queer folks — have been lost, compared to those few that have survived. I wanted to imagine queer people where they must have been, in shipyards and customs offices and coastal boom towns. I wanted them to be in love, to be gender outlaws and survivors, to triumph.
For centuries, the art of brewing beer belonged to women alone. This is the story of how the church pushed them out the industry they founded and sent them riding piggy-back on demons into the flames of an eternal abyss.
What further revelations lurk in our woefully unexplored queer pupper past? Find out literally right now, as we continue our historical adventures with gal’s best pal!
