Lesbian Nation

Imagine my surprise when, as I was reading the latest issue of The New Yorker, March 2, 2009, I came across an article titled, "Lesbian Nation", by Ariel Levy, an out lesbian staff writer. The article is subtitled, "Why gay women took to the road." It's a spirited article about a small group of lesbian separatists from the 70's who called themselves the Van Dykes, and who traveled around the country living on women's/wimmen's/womyn's land. The link to the article above is a synopsis, not fully available online, unless you register for the reading or purchase it from The New Yorker. The above photo is from The Lesbian Tide magazine from the 70's. This cover commemorates the 1st West Coast Lesbian Conference, which I attended at UCLA in 1973. The right on women from San Francisco inspired me to move here.

I don't know what's going on in New York lately, but someone at both The New Yorker and The New York Times is fascinated with the subject of lesbians taking to the land and living on their own. On January 30, 2009 the New York Times published a piece called My Sister's Keeper about old dykes who live communally. Here's how it opens:

"They called it a lesbian paradise, the pioneering women who made their way to St. Augustine, Fla., in the 1970s to live together in cottages on the beach. Finding one another in the fever of the gay rights and women’s liberation movements, they built a matriarchal community, where no men were allowed, where even a male infant brought by visitors was cause for debate." This article is published in the Fashion and Style section of the Times.

In honor of this recent surge in interest in lesbian life in the 70's, my coming-of-age decade, I made a reading list of relevant lesbian literature; both written at the time and about the times:

Lesbian-Feminism and the 70's