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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1990)
Lesbians: Superstars today and yesterday BY DELL RICHARDS L Poetry esbians have always been the vanguard Louise Labe, c. 1524 of feminist politics and crusades for Labe wrote more than 1,500poems to another social justice. But they also lead the field in woman, Clemence de Bourges. Although Labe many professions — from such disparate ones died in the mid-16th century, her sonnets still are as tennis to poetry. considered the best love poems in French Consider contemporary superstars. Champ literature. Martina Navratilova holds the distinction of being one of the top women tennis players today. In 1982, she set a record by winning Education over $1 million in tennis that year. She has M. Carey Thomas, b. 1857 taken the Women’s Single Championship at Thomas is credited with creating the world- Wimbledon eight times; the US Open four famous medical college at Johns Hopkins times and the Australian Open three times. University — and insisting that women be She also ranks as the leading doubles player. admitted to the school. She also was first woman Early in her career, world-reknown poet president of Bryn Mawr College as well as the Adrienne Rich was chosen for the prestigious first woman to attend the Universities of Leipzig Yale Younger Poets series — one of the first and Zurich. women to receive this honor. She has since Political Activism racked up many important awards including two Guggenheim Fellowships, a grant from Susan B. Anthony, b. 1820 the National Institute of Arts and Letters — Most people know that Susan B. Anthony and an Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, was one of the most influential women of tum- named for the famous early 20th century of-the-century US. Not so many know that lesbian poet And these are just two of the Anthony refused to marry on principle and had many lesbians who have broken records or romantic relationships with women most of her new ground in their fields. life. The founder of the National Women’s In researching my latest book, Lesbian Suffrage Association, Anthony is one of the few Lists, I discovered that contemporary lesbians lesbians to have a coin minted in her honor. aren’t the only superstars. Many lesbians — who have either been forgotten or had their lesbianism suppressed by historians — were on the cutting edge of their time. Come with me on a journey down this almost forgotten path and meet the lesbian superstars of yesteryear. Science Sonya Kovalevsky, b. 1850 Although she had to study privately because women were not allowed to attend college, Kovalevsky eventually became a professor at the University of Stockholm. She is best known today for inventing the theorem of differential equations called the Caucy-Kovalevsky theorem. Musical Composition Ma Rainey was one of the female founders of the blues as we know it today. She also is credited with originating the term “woman- loving woman” for her upfront lesbianism. An ardent suffragist, Smyth was imprisoned for civil disobedience in 1911 — where she bolstered the moraleof the other feminist political prisoners by composing “March of the Women.” She was later made a Dame of the British Empire in recognition of her contribution to music. Ma Rainey, b. 1886 Art Mary Edmonia Lewis, b. 1843 A lesbian of Afro-American-Indi an heritage, Lewis was one of the first people of color to take the European art world by storm. Her radical lesbian politics came out in her art, which often used black and Native American women in her paintings to reflect women’s struggle to be free. Social Reform Jane Addams, b. 1860 Along with other lesbians such as Lillian Wald, Addams helped start the settlement movement — an early form of social work which got medical and child care, shelter, education and even financial assistance to the working poor of 19th century urban ghettos. She, too, had strong “romantic friendships” with women and lived, worked and vacationed in an all-female social network. Dame Ethel Smyth, b. 1858 Fiction Marie Corelli, b. 1855 Called the “Queen of the Best Sellers,” Corelli’s wildly romantic novels outsold all other books in tum-of-the-century England. She wrote nearly 30 best sellers during her career, including her 1886 first, A Romance ofTwo Worlds, which was partly autobiographical and started her on the road to fame. Journalism Lorena Hickok, b. 1893 At Franklin D. Roosevelt’s request, Hickok investigated the effects of the 1930s depression on family life. Her moving accounts detailed the specific effects of massive poverty not just in econom ic but also in em otional and psychological terms. Many give credit to her reports — which conveyed the breadth as well as the depth of the Great Depression — for convincing FDR to implement the New Deal. The program instituted such measures as unemployment insurance, retirement, disability and death benefits. Along with the public works projects, these reforms helped bring the US out of its dire economic state. Military Heroism Dr. Mary Edwards Walker , b. 1823 Passing as men, some 400 lesbians and non gay women fought in the American Civil War. Dr. Walker was one of the many lesbians who joined the Union Army to fight for her beliefs. She was eventually caught behind Confederate lines, administering to the wounded of both sides. Although it is often stated that no women have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Dr. Walker was accorded this recognition — one of the highest distinctions given for wartime bravery — by President Andrew Johnson in 1866. Medicine James Miranda Barry (Miranda Stuart), c. 1795 Barry was not only the first woman to become a doctor in England but probably the first person to become a medical student in their teens. She also was one of the first Western doctors to advocate preventive medicine. Like many women of the day who wanted to practice “male” professions, Barry donned traditional male attire at an early age and passed as a man most of her life. Crime Mary Frith, c. 16th century Frith was a highwayman who became rich in 16th century England by leading a band of thieves who robbed aristocrats on the road. And in a remarkable show of audacity, Frith then set up a pawn shop to sell the stolen merchandise back to her prey. The term “roaring girl,” which was a euphemism for lesbian until the early 20th century, came from the tremendously successful play about Frith. These women aren’t the only lesbians whose intelligence, talent and courage contributed to modem knowledge and culture. They are just a few of the many outstanding lesbians who were leading lights of their day. Exploration Lady Hester Stanhope, b. 1776 Stanhope was the first European — man or woman — to visit many North African and Middle Eastern tribes in the early 19th cen tury. For many years, she received a stipend from the British government for her study of unknown people and places. Photography Frances Benjamin Johnston, b. 1864 Johnston was one of the first — and still considered one of the finest — American photojoumalists. She photographed people at all levels of society — from coal miners and sailors to such notables as Susan B. Anthony and lesbian poet, Helen May Whitney. Vocal Performance ▼ Dame Ethyl Smith Lesbian Lists is available at gay, lesbian and feminist bookstore nationwide and from Alyson Publications in Boston.