Sisters_1974.11.pdf
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SAN FRANCISCO DALGfTERS OF BI LI TIS
Statement of Purpose
••• a women's organization to aid the Lesbian in
discovering her place in society and to educate
society to understand and accept her, without
prejudice, and .••
To encourage and support the Lesbian in
her search for her social, economic, personal,
interpersonal and vocational identity within
society by maintaining and building a library
on the themes of homosexuality and women, by
providing social functions where she can communicate with others and expand her social world outside the bar scene, and by providing an organized
structure through which she can work to change
society's limitations upon her lifestyles, by
providing a forum for the interchange of ideas
and constructive solutions to women's problems.
1.
2. To educate the public to accept and
understand the Lesbian as an individual, thereby
leading to the breakdown of taboos, prejudices,
and limitations on her lifestyle by sponsoring
public discussions, by providing individuals as
speakers and participants in various forums designed to educate the public1 by disseminating
educational and rational literature on the Lesbian.
3. To encourage, support and participate in
responsible research de~ling with homosexuality.
4. To investigate the penal code and to promote changes, in order to provide equitable handling of cases involving homosexuals, with due
process of law and without prejudice.
TO SAY AND BELIEVE THAT GAY IS GOOD
SAN FRANCISCO DAUGHTERS OF BILITIS, AN AFFILIATE OF
SAN FRANCISCO
~'s
CENTERS
P.O. BOX 40247
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
94140
SISl£RS
Jr•
ti Mlfrailfl
lor&,y-..,,
DOB BOARD M813ERS
President.
. . . . . Barbara Collier
Vice President
. Melinda Guyol
Treasurer. . . .
Helen Ruvelas
Recording Secretary.
. Jill Gribin
Corresponding Secretaries. Beckie Harvey,
Arza Ralph and Joanne
Sisters Coordinator
• . Liane Esstelle
Speakers Bureau. •
. Ann Fitzpatrick
Office Manager
. Wendy Hayes
Volunteer Coordinators . . Gail McLaughlin
and Diann Sullivan
TRALMA IN lHE HETEROSEXUAL ZONE
CONTENTS
by
Trauma in the Heterosexual Zone . . • . . • • . . 3
POETRY • •
c.ALENDAR •
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
• •
• •
•
•
•
•
•
•
.11
• 16
Press Release . • . . . • . . . • • • . • . . • . 19
Walls. • . • • . .
. • • . . . . • • • . . . 20
The Invisible Minority. . . • . . .
. . . . 25
Do Your Own DOB. . . . .
. • . . . . . . . . 32
G)
SISTERS magazine
1974 by Daughters ~of Bili tis
San Francisco, Reproduction by permission of the San
Francisco DOB Board Members.
Cover submitted by Linda Wesley and drawing done
by Bonnie G. Foster
----------QiANGES OF ADDRESS---------Because we use a non-profit, bulk mailing
permit, the post office will not forward
SISTERS beyond city limits - EVEN IF YOU
ENTER A CHANGE OF ADDRESS. If you move
you must send us your New Address if you
want~r subscription to continue.
SEND IT EARLY, OON'T MISS ANY $ISJERS:
Jeanne Cordova
I was a late bloomer. I remember being scandalized
• the summer of my 17th year when a friend used
in
the word "shit'.: I never heard the words " gay " or
"non-Catholic" until I had become both. Until I was
22 it seemed I always found out about the impor~ant
things - sex, bad words, alchol, women, love - ipso
facto, that is, after I had committed the fact.
Yes, I was a teen-age lesbian. But in honesty,
I owe it all to my high school gym teacher, the
Camp Fire Girls and the Convent.
It was an accident to begin with. My freshman
year in high school I fell in love with my.gym teacher.
Unfortunately, she didn't return my adoration; actually, she didn't even notice it. She left me.the following summer; actually, she got a better JOb somewhere else. Nevertheless, this was enough to throw
me into a major depression for months. Coincidentally,
I happened to be going steady, as they used to say,
with the high school basketball star. When my gym
teacher packed her volleyballs, baseballs and basketballs and split, I ripped Davie's little silver
basketball pendant off my neck and threw it after her.
Anxious about my depression and confused by its
source, my mother sent me to summer camp to get away
from it all.
The cure was perfect. Two days after I arrived
I fell in love with my counselor. She looked a lot
like my high school gym teacher. Conveniently, I
caught a quick, long-lasting cold and had to move
my bunk into the tent where she slept. Conveniently,
she had a bad back. Conveniently, we developed the
ritual of nightly back rubs - hiking up and down
the mountains can be very hard on the vertebrae.
One evening I was sitting on the edge of her
cot sort of rubbing her back, sort of dozing off,
feeling warm and happy. She turned her head and
whispered, "I love you"; and my world fell apart
3
and came back together in the most beautiful way.
I never remember hearing those words before the
summer of my 16th year and I've never heard them
again in quite the same way.
Catastrophe struck again as my 18th year,
strong Catholic background and lack of heterosexual
drive led me into the convent. Yes, a young, untouched Sister Mary Sappho. Suffice it to say, the
convent was hell. It was a giant, mothball closet
where all us moths kept bumping into each other
because there was nothing else to do.
The phone rang one Sunday evening in Convent
land. It was Mabel, a lay friend of Mother Superior.
My fellow Sisters were in the dining room watching
Peyton Place. The next thing I knew I was sitting
on the couch in her apartment, she was handing me a
Whiskey Sour and I was babbling out my life story
with particular emphasis on the part about my gym
teacher and camp counselor.
Many hours later we pulled back into the convent parking lot1 I was drunk. As I opened the car
door and turned to say something poignant and
romantic to her, I feil.l out of the car and landed
on the pavement. The whole evening had been a series
of arriving at new points without planning to get
there. Ipso factos. Like the point at which I found
myself lying on her living room floor, and the point
at which I felt like I was floating on her ceiling.
I broke the vow of Obedience seven months before
I was supposed to take it. I never understood what
Chastity meant until the morning after. Poverty,
however, I can still say seven years later, is my
true calling. I can't say I really understood Mabel-she joined the convent the day I left it - I understood what we shared together.
When I was 23 · and bought my first pair of prescription glasses, I remember being shocked at the
clarity of the world. Trees and houses and letters
on the freeway off ramps did not really slide into
each other in a confusing blur. So it was with what
Mabel taught me. The confusion of the past 10 years
fell together. With my new Mabelized glasses of
adulthood I saw clearly the beginning of who I was
4
T
and the end of trauma in the heterosexual zone.
Although I could see my way out of that zone,
I had a great deal of trouble finding the lost
continent of Lesbos. I wandered about the straight
wastelands of California State University at Los
Angeles for many months. I lived in one of those
coed apartment buildings where every morning at 6
o'clock you'd look down the corridor and see all
the boys tiptoing back to their own apartments.
One night in the middle of this wasteland,
Paul tiptoed into my apartment and stayed for six
months. Now I can honestly say I loved Paul, still
do. However, that had nothing to do with why I
decided to have an affair with him. I am very
analytical and take pride in weighing all the factors before making important decisions. So I weighed
Paul. And it was fine and he was fine, but when his
father died and he left for San Francisco, I failed
to go into depressive withdrawal symptoms as is the
case with me and lost love.
I decided to be more aggressive in my search
for true sapphic love. In order to believe in the
wholesome sincerity of my next move, one must understand that my naivete at the time was so acute
as to approach insanity. I was 19. I grew up in a
Chapel. I had never lived in a big city. I had never
seen a dirty movie. I didn't know there was a war
going on. I thought I was Chicano and blacks and
whites were as good as me. I thought "Student
Radicalism and Demonstrations" was a new sociology
class. I didn't know what I was doing. I placed an
ad in the Free Press - classified.
MY
WHOLEY
FAMILY
Like most people with a low boiling point, I hate
shopping, especially Christ.mas shopping. I've been
at it for 25 y1:.ars, gi VE. or takei a few of the first
ones. You'd think a half grown-up family of 14 would
make some sensible arrangement about alternating or
drawing names out of a hat. Not mine.
Like rr.ost families, we have rr.ore tradition than
sense. Ultimately I give in every year because I
5
never see most of them, and I'm afraid if I don't
buy them each a present, they might forget about me.
But they won't forget Christ~ias 1973.
I started out trying to be creative. My first
stop was the local feminist bookstore where I thought
I'd pick up some nonsexist reading material for the
little ones. Here was my first problem. The little
ones were 7 and 8 years old, but they're boys.
Ordinarily this does not represent a problem. However, authors of nonsexist children's books are
predominantly women. Most o·f their works are about
young female children.
While buying a book about a little girl for my
brothers should not prove a problem, I couldn't
help feeling the transition from Jack and the. Beanstalk to Captain Jane the Astronaut would be a
little much. I was looking for something more subtle.
I spotted a likely title, William's Doll. Reading
the short story, I found William wanted a doll so
he could practice taking care of a baby when he
became a father. Second reflection assured me that
my father would take one look at the title and throw
it away.
Finally I settled for the record Free To Be You and Me. I figured if Rosey Grier could sing
(side 1) "It's all right to cry," it was O.K.
I took another risk. I have a set of sisters
who were 11 and 13. When I saw the colorful picture
book Where Do Babies Come From? I remember standing
in the living room with my 16-year-old sister(I
was 15). We figured the conspiracy had gone on long
enough, so we asked, "Mom, where the hell do babies
come from?" Imagine telling your kid about the
"mystery of life" in one sentence. It went something
like - "Well. . . it's . . . when you. . . to begin
with. . . sometimes.. . . You take a man and you
take a woman, you stick them together at night,
you get a baby." Sometimes the fine details are
really important. I found her explanation unromantic.
I bought the book.
Next, going in chronological order, comes
another set of boys, young - at the time - high
school men, to put it loosely. Fortunately, some
6
i
feminist male and female writers have recognized
that half. the problem with women is men and have
written books to that effect. Fortunately, I still
retained some hope of salvageability for my 15and 16-year-old brothers.
Male and Female Under 18 1 that sounded good.
The authors had compiled an anthology of quotes,
stories and poems from young high school boys and
girls who were sorting out their identities. I
wasn't quite sure of my younger brother but hoped
this book would send him off in the right direction.
On the back cover of a book entitled The American
Male was a preamble which began, "What are the reasons
for the War between the sexes?" Ah ha, this would be
appropriate for the older one. He responds well to wars.
Next came the middle kingdom - 3 young women,
then 18,20,22. The younger and older were not so difficult. The 18-year-old was a freshman in colles •:!.
I •bought her a "Wonder Woman" T-shirt and hoped uer
classmates would think she was kidding. Actually· , she
has political aspirations, and I know she is going
to have to be some kind of superwoman to get half of
what she dreams about. I got the older one, also a
budding Republican politico,The Liberated Woman's
Appointment Calendar for 1974. I had hopes she might
casually open it in front of RONALD the following
spring. He would need it.
But the middle sister was the biggest problem.
She's married. Newly married. Furthermore, she likes
it! Now it's not for me to question the lifestyle of
my sisters, I mean, "to each her own." But damn, I
~eally didn't think I could find anything in this
particular store which would suit her needs. I
walked up to the woman at the counter arid asked,
"Do you have anything for a young married woman?"
"Married to a man?" People are always asking
about my politics.
"Yes." What could I say?
"How about Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen? She
was married."
"I don't think that would be appropriate. This
particular sister is still into being a prom queen.
It's one of her unfulfilled fantasies, she only
7
made princess."
"Oh, I see. All of our books about married
women end up with them leaving their husbands
I'm afraid."
'
"No, no. That won't do. Don't want to rock
the family boat, you know. Isn't there anything
that just talks about marriage?"
"How about Diary of a Mad Housewife?"
I took her suggestion, but somehow I still
had an uneasy feeling about this one.
Next I went to something safe. My oldest sister
was a brilliant student of astrophysics, who couldn't
get her Volkswagen up a hill. What could be more
appropriate than How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive,
a ~anual of Step by Step Procedures for the Complete
Idiot. Actually, she is very adroit, and I'm a firm
believer in the self-sufficient women. Hoping she
was, I moved on.
Dad. Now there's a problem. I decided to sneak
around potential difficulties and appeal to his
sense of humor. I bought him three posters to hang
AT LAST! AN INTERNATIONAL
THE
GIRLS'
GUIDE
-1974
DIRECTORY/BAR AND CLUB GUIDE
ESPECIALLY FOR GAY WOMEN.
I
OVER 700 LISTINGS IN MORE
THAN 20 COUNTRIES. Send $5.00
D I GN I T V
ONLY TO: THE GIRLS' GUIDE
115 NEW MONTGOMERY STREET
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
8
-
up at his office. In order to catch the real flavor
here, it is necessary to understand that there are
a number of women who work for my father and that
he entertains clients from the expensive and, shall
we say, somewhat unliberated business world. But,
"You never can tell what makes a customer happy,"
he always used to say. I hoped if Mr. Landon from
Uni versa! looked up and saw "If You Want I Done
Right, Hire a Woman" and "Women Work Here, Too~
he would appreciate my efforts. The third poster
depicts a large portrait of Golda Meir. Underneath
it reads, "Yes, But Can She Type?" Actually, my
father has a poor way with secretaries.
I wrapped up my long day's journey into trouble
with my mother and oldest (24) brother. The Feminist
Papers, a long overview of the first and second
Women's Liberation Movements, seemed . . . solid?
. . . for Mom. She has a fine sense of history.
I bought the expensive hard-cover edition just to
give it the fine touches.
I was running out of titles when it came to
the 24-year-old. He is part of "the big three"
(oldest three) and as such deserved special consideration. He is also an unadulterated m.c.p.
and as such deserved no consideration. However,
it was Christmas. I passed up two works, Male
Chauvinism and How It Works and What's Wrong with
Male Chauvinism? People tend to get turned off if
you hit them over the head with their political
sins. I reread the back cover of The American Male
94105
A national organization for GAY CATHOLICS who
love. Write:
DIGNITY •
P.O. Box 16246
San Francisco, CA 94116
9
and saw it also spoke to the question, "What is
the Sexual Revolution all about?" Need I say
more.
People say we all give parts of ourselves
with every gift - even the ones we don't think
about. I'm sure that's why I get stationery (with
little blue butterflies on the top right corner)
from my·dull great-great-grandfathers. I'm sure
that's why I give blue bathroom towels (same
butterflies) to my great-great-grandmothers.
But I had thought about these gifts and gave
parts of myself and my world to the people I want
in my world.
This selection you have just read
'
JI
0
t
T
e
was taken from Ms. Cordova's book, SEXISMIT'S A NASTY AFFAIR with the writer's permission.
Ms. Cordova will be giving a rap at DOB on the
18th of November.
She is currently active as co-chairperson of
UCLA
Gay Studies Program and teaching a cla.s s, "The
Lesbian Experience", and working on her first novel,
PORTRAIT OF A DYKE.
She is a columnist for the LA
Free Press, a free lance writer, founder and an
editor on THE LESBIAN TIDE.
GOOD DEEDS
Over the hills and far away
Are the lands where the elves and fai~ies play,
They play and play from morn till night,
And then they sleep until it's light.
The beautiful things they do by day,
The children dream them, so they say,
When fairies plant some little seeds,
The children change them to good deeds.
---Helen Brakenridge Till
The poem, "GOOD DEEDS" was taken from
the book, "AMERICAN WOMEN POETS 1937".
10
11
I'd like to take a bath
and oil my skin
with perfume,
and brush my hair
silky smooth and shiny.
.,...
But I can't spend so much love
on my body,
when you aren't spending any.
---Heather
POETIC ELLIPSIS
She came at that precise junction in a life
When the past is unbearable
And the future uncertain.
---Rita Mae Brown
Chains
melting in white
heat of passion
ears sucking in sensuous sound,
verbs knocking
on mind's edge
Reflections
seducing
hues
of
light.
Walls fortressing,
scarred emotions
Nostril screaming orations of love.
Orgasm flooding on virgin sheets,
bodies pivoting you and me togethe~.
It is now I live forgetting destiny
yesterday is today's seeded dream.
Tomorrow waits patiently
outside these moods.
---Germaine Johnson
I do pray for some terrific shock to startle the
women of this nation into a self-respect which will
compel them to see the abject degradation of their
present position; which will force them to break
their yoke of bondage, and give them faith in themselves; which will make them proclaim their allegiance
to women first; which will enable them to see that
man can no more feel I speak or act for woman than
could the old slaveholder for his slave. The fact is,
women are in chains, and their servitude is all the
more debasing because they do not realize it. o, to
compel them to see and feel , and to give them the
courage and conscience to speak and act for their
own freedom, though they face the scorn and contempt
of all the world for doing it.
---Susan B. Anthony
(taken from a
letter to a
friend, summer
of 1870)
A WOMAN WRONGED
She's a lonesome woman
For I've seen her weep
There in harbor mists
A useless token
She keeps a desecrated flame
Yet holds it high
For in her iron crowned head
There lingers metallic a hollow ring
Which only the young can hearThousands of ragged, shuffling feet:
"Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses
Longing to be free."
---Rita Mae Brown
12
13
We live our lives
Sterile and sanitary
Imprisoned in cubicles
of
Don't touch.
We sit
looking out at
each other
wondering what would happen
if . . .
what would I say
what would I feel
what would I do
if . . .
you touched me
THE
---Audrey
FULL~
lQ\1EN Is OOFFEEHOUSE
& BOOKSTORE
San Francisco
A Moment
864-9274
hung suspended
in my mind
then framed
later to be gift-wrapped,
The last time I saw her.
---Barbara Starkey
Stephanie Mines
& Liane Esstelle
Sexual ignorance is not bliss
A Non-Profit Community Phone Service
(415) 665-7300
14
Phone hours: 3 to 9 p.m. Mon. through Fri.
15
CRIS
WIU.l~ON
at Full Moon
8pm
t ~•s Skill Cen.
51 Waller St.
9pm
$1.50 Door
Charge
~•s Writers
Workshop at Full
Moon starts 3pm
with Stephanie
Mines Open to
All R. & is held
EVERY SUNDAY
10
DEADLINE
for
. SISTERS
Meeting at 7pm
"Are you.
up-front on
your job?"
Phyllis 7pm
*OOB RAPS no~·
every Monday &
some Thursdays
4
11 ~ Artists
talk about Art
with- Nikki
Jeanne
& Elleq
5 IN FOCUS meet
ever_y Tues. 8pm
10 Laguna st.
for info. call
Karen or Sue at
567-0526
Jill will be
at DOB to do
Counseling 5-Gpm
for lesbian
couples or singl
& on Wed. 20th
8pm
Meet Allyne
your~ Muni
Indy will
Driver & find
play her music
out how? 7pm
at Full Moon
at DOB --THURSDAY'-9pm
7pm at DOB
THE . OTHER . SIDE
a Mar1n County
lesbian group
meets 2 Fidays
every month
see page #31
15
s.o.L.
Party
(Slightly Older
Lesbians 30+)
w.o.E.
Conference
see p. 31
9
SWEET
CHARIOT
Benefit
Concert
+childcare
see page #31
by
reservation
20 Winifred S. 21 DRINKING
will
read poetry
PROBLEMS?
CORI:OVA
at
Full
Moon
Let's talk about
see pagۥ 10
-WEDNESDAYit with Wendy
8: 30pm
and Barbara
at DOB
7pm
*DOB's phone no. is (415) 861-8689 --Wednesday---Thursday--
JEANNE
"Coming Out
Rap" for
women new to
the -lesbian
life-style
with L&M
7 Paula & Hele
will play their
acoustical musi
at Full Moon
22 LESBIAN
Wild Side West
THEATER at 720 Broadway
Full Moon 8130pm
near Stockton
call for more
has all women's
info. 864-9274
bands every
--Friday-Fri. & Sat. nite
info. 391-0460
27 Donna Lane
will read her
poetry at Full
Moon
8:30pm
Support your Local Lesbian Organization, D.O.B. - the oldest Up-Front
lesbian organization. Come rap with us, we are here to serve you.
DOB Room #402
1005 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
30
JONIE
BECKER
music at Full
l Moon 9pm
PRESS RE~E
IV,/111£: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
~11fEEr_:
c,ry._· ____Jr.fr£:_ _ ~1P .·_ _ __
Af11,~ 7P
7J.o --9.,
.fa.n
/005
,+/,.,.,f~t .:r., "~z
C,f. - '7-1//03
,,::-,.~~IS'Co,
LAYEKDER WOMAN
OUR LESBIAN·FUUNIST NEWSPAPU.
• 1year $6.. 00
• Institutions $/0.00
• Single issue 65t
• Free to siaters in prison
or mental hospitcal,.
send to: LAVENDER WOMAN
P.O. BOX 60206
Chicago, IL.60660
18
PRESS REL..9SE
Conrad Hunter & Associate, Inc. is proud to
announce the formation of the HUNTER FINE ARTS
SOCIETY, the first fine arts club for the homophile community, with top items of original art,
sculptures, jewelry, posters and authorized reproductions not available anywhere else, plus gay
records, tapes and books.
The society offers to its subscription members,
through a full color monthly catalog, the latest
and finest, in gay orientated and gay produced art,
graphics, jewelry, literature and music.
The world's top gay artists and talented new
artists deserving recognition will be featured in
each issue.
Original posters and authorized reproductions
of gay art from throughout history will also be
offered .
Conrad Hunter & Associates, Inc. is a gay
owned and operated company. The Hunter Fine Arts
Society has been established for the purpose of
providing a service to the gay community that in
our opinion is much needed. There is a marvelous
world of gay culture and we want to make gay people
aware of it, help them learn to appreciate it and
enable them to obtain the items they want.
It is our opinion that there is much more to
being gay, than just what we do in bed. Gay is also
a state of mind. Being gay is beautiful, and we
want to help to make it even more beautiful.
The Hunter Fine Arts Society is a business
that is part of the gay cormnunity and wants to work
with the gay community.
The society is interested in discovering new
gay talent that deserves recognition. We are interested in finding gay artists for original art,
sculptures, jewelry, as well as gay posters.
Please disseminate this information. It is
news. For further information contacts Dan Frederick
Schramm, Vice President, Conrad Hunter & Associates,
Inc. P.O. Box 1274, Milwaukee, WI. 53201
19
way. She cannot suspect.
by
Amanda L. Aikman
Who is she? I follow her with my eyes. I follow
her circumspectly across the grass. She enters a
building. The door shuts. I walk away, grateful
that I am invisible to her.
APRIL
MAY
A girl in class. Silent, yet posessed of a
slow, infinitely sad smile. A deep, deep gaze from
dark eyes. The girl is a mystery, terrifying. She
frightens me and I can't run away. I see her twice
a week. She is never absent. Neither am _I.
I stumble over my words. My limbs grow to
gigantic proportions in her presence, I can find
no resting-place for my awkward hands and feet.
I hide my suddenly grotesque face with my hand.
Her eyes penetrate me, know me, judge me, but she
says nothing.
Who is she? Nobody knows her name. I make
discreet inquiries. She lives in someone's dorm
but nobody knows who she is.
She's a dance major, someone tells me. That
narrows it down.
What is happening to me? Whenever she's not
looking, I'm staring at her, fascinated. Her skin
is as white as a prisoner's.
I see her lunch sometimes. I gaze at her. The
others think I am looking at a boy. They don't know
that I am looking . at the ghost of all dreams.
I summon my courage. I ask her about her paper.
I tremble as she speaks, softly, in a reed-thin,
desastrously charming voice .. I despair. What is
your name, I ask. She tells me. I rejoice. I know
the name! But we say nothing more. It's better this
20
The school year is almost over. There is a
showing of student movies. The dancer's name is
in the program; she is in one of the films, my
soul leaps and flutters. I scan the darkened room.
Is she here, alone, like me? Or has she already
departed for the summer? The movie starts before
I know.
A mass of dancers swishes across the screen.
A flash of her, a glimpse of leotards and bound-back hair. Just a flash. The movie ends. I walk
out and hide among the crowd, watching the exiting
people. Is that her? No. Not even a glimpse ~his
time. She has gone. I hold her memory to me in
silence, under the wistful stars. A flash is eno~gh.
It must be enough, for there will never be anything
more.
SEPTEMBER
She has not returned to school. I ask a dancer
about her. He says that she has gone up north1 she
hated the city. What was she like, I ask. No-one
really knew her very well, says the dancer. She
met someone during the summer and they went up
north together. I hope he was a nice man, I say.
The dancer looks away. It was another woman,
actually, he says.
I refuse to curse myself, for my silence is
a weapon, a defense against a perilous world. I
must not hate my silence, even now.
22
WANTED
WANTED
fEWAAD
WANTED: INFORMATION ON THE SCENE FOR GAY WOMEN
DOWN MEXICO WAY. NAMES AND ADDRESSES OR BARS ,
CLUBS, ETC. PLEASE. REWARD: A COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OF THE GIRLS'S GUIDE--1975 SEND ALL INFO TO:
THE GIRLS' GUIDE
115 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
-In
Radical Therapy
Demystifying Ps,chiatric Oppression
Proposing Solutions
Fighting Back
Good to Look At
Exposing l'Dlitical Oppression
OCTOBER
I have met a man. He is kind and I need
someone. We make love sometimes. But in the night
when he is gone, I am not alone. I lie awake and
dream of the dancer and in the phantom world we
embrace, laughing and there is no silence between
us.
NOVEMBER
The man has gone; I sent him away. I feel
free and empty; the winter wind whistles bleakly
through my silent soul.
After the holiday, I am on a crowded train
headed back into the city. There is a seat half
free; I ask the woman sitting there if it is
taken. She looks at me through sunglasses and
shakes her head. I sit down. Between us is a
wooden box with two cats in it. One of them sticks
out a paw and pokes me. We laugh and she takes
off her glasses.
We talk for the rest of the journey and I
find myself thawing, stretching out my frozen
limbs to be warmed by this human flame. She is
lovely and yet lonely; her eyes are as guarded
and fearful as mine must be. But the walls she
has erected cannot hide the warmth that glows
from within her.
STREET ADDRESS
CIT Y_ _ _ __ _ _ ST ATE _
P.O. Box 23544
22
_
ZIP _ _ __
As we get off the train, I with my suitcase,
she with her cats, we find we are going to different
places. We stop and look at each other, not seeing
the men who rush noisily past us. For a moment we
stand, tense, on a quiet island in the midst of
the human stream. Wordlessly, she pulls out a pad
and -encil, writes, and thrusts a piece of paper
into my hand. Then she is gone.
Oakland, Cal. 94823
23
DECEMBER
I sit restlessly at my desk, my gaze drawn
again and again to the piece of paper taped on
the wall. On it is nothing but a telephone nurnber,
a silent testimony to my cowardice. I have wanted
so many times to call the number, just to speak
to her again, but never have I found the courage.
Now the time is growing short; I will be far
away in three days. My hand strays to the telephone
but I do not pick it up. I clench my hand around
the receiver, so hard that I expect blood to pour
from under my nails. but I cannot move . The walls
I have built so carefully are too strong to be
b r oken now.
THE INVISIBLE MINORITY
I stare at the snow spiralling down outsid~
the window and begin to cry, silently . . .
LAVENDER JANE l.oVES WofvEN This is a rave review,
written~ with the mistaken notion that few know
about this album, but rather it's a crime for any
lesbian to miss! Lavender Jane is composed of veteran musicians who tried theTr°hands in the music
(male) establishment and emerged unscathed to produce this remarkable labor of love. This record is
a celebration of women & music, our "great Dyke
heritage" as the album notes put it. The range and
variety of the cuts is unusual. They include traditional folk ballads chosen for their applicability
to the lesbian-feminist perspective as well as for
their purely aesthetic value. Particualarly notable
are "Talking Lesb~an" & "View from Gay Head". The
first is a potent proselytizing song based on Pete
Seeger's "Talking Union" but with a lesbian content.
The other is only great--should be the Lesbian
National Anthem; highly singable, moving and appropriate for belting out at campfires & baseball games.
Taken from LESBIAN CONNECTION
24
t chose this topic, not just because I am a
lesbian, but because I am invisible. Can you hear
me sisters? can you see me? Well, then I sure as
hell am invisible! And besides, I've built a wall
to keep you out. Actually, I'm a burrower rather
than a builder, but it wouldn't sound nice if I
just came out and said, "I dig holes". Anyway,
back to the wall. Mine began with care, at an
early age, as I was growing up in a small town,
just south of the Mason-Dixon Line. A town, where
if you weren't born there, you were nothing and
if you were born there, you grew up there, fornicated there, got married there because you
"had to", and (after much local gossip) received
heavens greatest reward and died there.
As I grew up, I found that the molds others
made were just as sure as the devil not made for
me. so in order to cover up this oddness, this
craving for a quest larger than that town
(population 210), I became sort of a buffoon.
When people laugh, far too few ever bother to look
25
SISTERS' ADVERTISING COSTS - - - deeper. And in that sense too we clowns - theme's
in this world--truely are invisible.
Due to family situations, some of them not
too hot, I bounced around a bit from Mother to
Aunt to Father; from East to West and back again.
I hated it. So as soon as I was old enough, I quit
school, joined a theatre group outside of
Philadephia. I took acting and speech classes,
and in return, worked at all sorts of jobs: sets,
costumes and eventually, as an electrician.
As an actress, I was a dud. I stayed with the
group for 2 years absorbing sponge-like all I
could. During that time I realized that even
those liberal thinkers considered their homosexuals a bit odd: talented, granted but still
queer and how very biter that small homophile
minority became! Finally the day came when I
was asked to leave. To go away and grow up. so
at 19 I went to the big town, Broadway! Oh I'd
show them, I'd wow the world! Needless to say
I was scared shitless, so I stayed in my room
for several days reading and re-reading the
Well of Loneliness. When finally I ventured forth
from that dump on West 76th Street to face one
· block at a time, I really wowed them. Why, in no
more then 15 minutes flat I was propositioned.
Run back to room, run again back to safety back to the wall or wall of loneliness.
Starvation forces courage, so try to find
a job. No skills, no finished education, nothing
but honesty. Honesty was about as much damned
good as a hill of beans - at least when you
wanted a job. After puzzeling on this, I figured
out that maybe it was because so many people
just never learned how to handle truth.
Hide, must hide to survive but not alone!
Can't live alone, so take first friend to the
room; we spend all evening learning together
what we feel and the many ways to express it.
The next morning am asked to leave by the end
of the week because, "we won't have your kind
living here." continued on page 28
IF
you would like to make contact and meet
other lesbians from your area, near or
far-out especially if you're isolated
and made to feel you are the only one
in Bellflower, Indiana or whatever
your situation may be, may we suggesta
you put an ad in SISTERS.
IF you have a business, are publishing a
gay book, doing lesbian art, etc • • •
you may also be interested in using
space in SISTERS.
ALSO
for those of you who have a
Wom,?n' s monthly publication,
we would be interested in
exchanging ads on a regular
basis.
The outside dark, heavy line ~ndicates the
area of space which equals ONE FULL PAGE AD
in SISTERS. ALL ads must be camera-ready,
in black & white only and submitted before
SISTERS' Deadline (see calendar) in order
for it to go in the following month.
cost
size
FULL PAGE AD.
. . . . .
. . . . . . $30.00
. . . . . . . . $15.00
PAGE AD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.50
one type-written line . . . . . . . . $1.00
~
PAGE AD .
~
two
\
type-written lines . . .
• • $2. 00
and so forth . . •
27
26
Hide deeper. Burrow deeper. Deny your
individuality7 if Mom ever finds out you're
queering it up, why she'll stop taking her insulin.
And if boss "thought you were a homosexual, she'd
have you fired". Hide, keeping all sensitivity
inside. Wear that "I don't give a damned" clown
mask. Play different people's patterns and screem
inside softly, silently suffer all the tortures
of the oppressed.
Then turn to your "own kind" and have them
tell you that you either have to be butch or
femme and unless they know which you are they
can't associate with you. And you don't fit in
there either! Talk about oppression!
Finally, as I near forty - am going through
the change of life, I've opened the door a crack
and am told by my sisters, those 10 years my
junior, "how nice to see you, but shouldn't you
try to associate with those closer ~o you: own
age?" And I am filled with rage. This ancient,
impotent, body-soul of mine can take no more
torment, I can no longer sit here idle; I must
shout out! I am sick to death of the sound of
labels slap, slap, slapping on paper people.
No , I shall not retire easily, go gracefully
to
.
the old folks home for elderly lesbians.
There are attitudes I must now fighta
insensitivity, ignorance, inhumanity and intolerance. And I and the legion of me's in this
land are as guilty of fostering these attitudes
by our silence as you are now of perpetuating
them by your seeming indifference.
.
Some said that this brief talk of mine
should be educational . . . I am not sure it is.
{At this point I stepped out from behind the ~all
or curtain and face the audience) The one thing
I am sure of is that the only way I ever learn
and learn deeply is by sharing.
I am Barbara Lou Starkey - right now I'm
near shared out so I would like to read a poem
that is an old friend of mine - a poem by
Edna st. Vincent Millay calleda
28
SCRUB
If I grow bitterly,
like a gnarled and stunted tree,
Bearing harshly of my youth puckered fruit that sears the mouth7
If I make of my drawn boughs an inhospital
house,
out of which I never pry towards the water
and the sky,
.
Under which I stand and hide and hear the
day go by outside;
It is that a wind too strong bent my back
when I was young
It is that I fear the rain lest it blister
me again.
~ell, what I ask you is wind, but the sting of
words spoken without wisdom and rain is but wet
water. Amazing how quickly they both die once
you let the healing rays of sunlight in. Invisibles
of all mi~orities, we ask of you only that you
throw open those confounded airless closets.
You are important, individual and as such are
valuable
• • • come on out. And if you walk , walk
.
in peace. Carry forth the feelings you so
desperately hoped to receive from others and call
them shining names - call them understanding,
29
-----rtlRE CALENDAR INFO
compassion, acceptance and love. And when you
walk, walk straight - walk proud.
---Barbara L. Starkey
P.S.
M thanks to Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin for
their ~aith, love and patience. Thanks to Sharon
Crase for her professional assistance, but mo~tly
for pushing, shoving and caring. Thanks to this
panel for their trusting support of an unknown
I hope I've not failed them.
And a special thanks to Rita Mae Brown for
"Rubyfruit Jungle". Well, Rita Mae, I know yo~ . ,
can't hear me honey but my flavor's Tutty Fruitie.
Thank you all for listening.
This was a speech given as part of the
Golden Gate Chapter of N.o.w.'s
THE OTHER SIDE, a Marin County lesbian group, meets
the 1st. & 3rd Friday of each month at the Marin
Women's Center, 1618 Mission, San Rafael, at 7130pm.
For further information call 456-3014.
*
*
*
w.o.E., Women's Organization for Employment Conference
"Nowhere to Go But Up" at First Unitarian Church,
Franklin & Geary, 9s30am to 5pm, many workshops on
employment related .. issues, $3.50 at door or $3.
advance from WOE, 593 Market Rm. 223, info. 495-0924.
*
*
*
s.o.L. (30+) Party with dinner & dancing at Hans'
316th 14th Street, Oakland. The back room will be
reserved for dinner. Identify s.o.L. and make reservations by November 10th. Dinners start at $3.50.
There is a bar & dancing upstairs where tables will
be reserved for us after dinner. For further info.
& directions call Hans at 893-6280 or Berni 483-5143.
panel discussion on May 22nd, 1974.
The majority of the speech--first 2 pages
was spoken from behind a curtain type
arrangement.
As I've indicated,
I entered and completed
speaking.
*
*
*
Women's Benefit Concert with SWEET CHARIOT The S.F.
Women's Center has gotten together with Berkely
Women's Music Collective to do a combined benefit
at 1st. Unitarian Church (Franklin & Geary) $2.00,
will provide childcare by reservation ONLY call
at 431-1180 or 431-1414.
*
*
*
If you have any Calendar info. that you would
like to see in IXJB's calendar contact Liane by
leaving her a message at IXJB's Answering Service
at 861-8689, be sure you leave your phone no. so
she can call you back.
31
30
Univili1lr1~111l1i1fjjij)1l~I1U1i11lif1m11 II1~1r .OK
M 001 111 656
DO YOUR OWN D.O.B.
Yes, I'd like ta organize
(or)
ti i
in a new DOB
• • • Chapter in -or near par c pate only
Whether we are just coming-out, came-out a year
ago, or 20 years ago, we, as lesbians, all have the
same basic need - the need for a sense of identity
and community. Lesbians in San Francisco take for
graQted what lesbians in Carbondale, Ohio or even
Tallahassee, Florida can only dream about - widespread communication and emotional support within .a
strong (not necessarily large) community of womenloving-women. The tremendous amount of letters we
receive, constantly remind us of thie need.
A lesbian organization, such as D.O.B., can be a
vehicle through which to achieve this sense of community. So many women write us expressing enthusiasm
and interest in participating in such an organization;
but they are so isolated from each other and not necessari.liy in miles. It is our hope that this article
will put them in contact with their sisters.
So if you're interested in organizinq/participating
in a new D.O.B. Chapter, fill out the form on the next
page and send it to us; we'll put all the women who
respond from any one area in touch with each other.
When you get together, you might want to put up
notices in: any qay bars or gay groups (even if they're
male ones), straight women's groups, colleges, "underground" newspapers etc. even bookstores, laundramats
or supermarkets that have bulletin boards - any place
in your area where lesbians could be contacted. You
may also want to take out a P.O. Box for the responseso
Then draw up a constitution based on San Francisco
D.O.B.'s "Statement of Purpose" (see inside front cover)
and send copies to all existing chapters (see inside
back cover) askinq permission to affiliate. We'll try
to put you in touch with sympathetic organizations in
your state for information on any further legal or
quasi-legal requirements.
Do it please! Help build the foundation for a strong
Lesbian Nation. In sisterly love,
Kathy+ Lesia
32
(nearest big city(-ies) that would be convenient)
Name:
------------
5tree t:
----------·
City+ State:
-------·--Zip:
-----
Phone?
--------
I also know
other lesbians in my area who might
want to organize/participate.
- - - - - - - - - clip and send to us----------------
THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN SISTERS ARE THOSE OF
THE INDIVIDUAL WRITERS AND NOT NECESSARILY THOSE
OF THE SISTERS COLLECTIVE OR THE S.F. 008 BOARD.
Part of Sisters : (1974:Nov.)