Tag Archives: Jill Johnston

Gay History – March 30, 1973: Jill Johnston’s “Lesbian Nation” Calls For Intersectionality in the Gay Community

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Did you ever wondered how LGBT acronym began?   Well here is your answer.

March 30th, 1973:  Jill Johnston’s book of essays Lesbian Nation is published which calls for a lesbian movement separate from the gay rights movement.

A writer for The Village Voice Johnston is one of  the first leaders of the lesbian separatist movement of the 1970s.

Johnston was a member of a 1971 New York City panel produced by Shirley Broughton as part of the “Theater for Ideas” series. The event was a vigorous debate on feminism with Norman Mailer, author; Germaine Greer, author; Diana Trilling, literary critic; and Jacqueline Ceballos, National Organization for Women president. The event was a showdown of intellect and personality. While Johnston read a poem culminating in on-stage lesbian sex (fully dressed) followed by a quick exit, Greer and Mailer continued to exchange verbal blows with each other and the audience for the rest of the 3½ hour event.

In 1973, she predicted “an end to the catastrophic brotherhood and a return to the former glory and wise equanimity of the matriarchies.” As recorded in Lesbian Nation, Johnston often was at the center of controversies within the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970.

In Lesbian Nation, Johnston discusses lesbian invisibility and advocated a political lesbianism that would bring women together to support one another and have power as a group, while becoming independent of men which she said helped fractured the “gay  rights” movement at that time by separating the two group powers.

 Johnston believed that all males were the same, even gay males.

“Gay men, however discriminated against, are still patriarchs.” Johnston is quoted as saying.

Still Lesbian Nation is an amazing look back at the feminist and gay rights movement of the late 60’s and early 70.  The book itself in a historical aspect should be appreciated as a classic lesbian text, and even with the time difference it offers an  insight of the beginning of today’s compartmentalization within the community and echo’s the argument against the “privilege gay males” today.

Now 50 years later, some members of the community, mostly the TQIA2+ communities  now want us to de-identify and return to the use of one  word to describe the now bloated LGBTQIA2+ community acronym. And the ill -advised word they chose? “Queer.”. But that’s another story.

So.  If you ever wondered how and when LGBT intersectionality in our community began. Here is your answer.

Gay History - March 4: Vanity Plates, Man Hating Lesbians, and Murder

Gay History – March 4: Cali Vanity Plates, Betty Friedan and Man Hating Lesbians, and Murdered for Being a “F*g”

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1971: Village Voice columnist Jill Johnston comes out in her article, “Lois Lane is a Lesbian,” sparking a controversy between feminism and lesbianism that results in various Johnston antics, including simulating an orgy during a panel discussion moderated by Norman Mailer.

As recorded in Lesbian Nation, Johnston often was at the center of controversies within the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s She famously went on record stating that “all women are lesbians except those that don’t know it yet.”

Johnston was also one of the first countercultural and lesbian writers at Ms. magazine, eventually coming to the conclusion that the magazine was too mainstream, ultimately presenting feminism as palatable, family-friendly and safe. According to author Vivian Gornick:

For radical feminists like me, Ellen Willis, and Jill Johnston, we had a different kind of magazine in mind. We came out against marriage and motherhood. Gloria Steinem was uptown; we were downtown. She hung out with Establishment figures; we had only ourselves. It very quickly became obvious at that first meeting that they wanted a glossy that would appeal to the women who read the Ladies’ Home Journal. We didn’t want that, so they walked away with it.

Johnston is the subject of one of Andy Warhol’s portrait films, Jill, a 4½-minute silent movie shot in black and white (1963)

Johnston will be the first to call for intersectionality noting the difference between gay and lesbian issues.

1972: The California DMV reports that while the majority of the 65,000 vanity license plates have presented no censorship issues for the department, a few plates – including “HOMO”, “GAYLIB”, “EAT ME”, and “LOVE69” have been banned.

Continue reading Gay History – March 4: Cali Vanity Plates, Betty Friedan and Man Hating Lesbians, and Murdered for Being a “F*g” →

Gay History – December 1st: World AIDS Day, Alvin Ailey, Puritan Sex Panic and Pat Robertson Goes Crazy Again.

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World AIDS Day

 

December 1st:

1642 – The General Court of Connecticut adopted a list of 12 capital crimes, including “man lying with man.” The law was based on the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Body of Liberties of 1641 the first legal code established by European colonists in New England

1901 – El Universal, a Mexican newspaper, reported that police raided a party attended by single women. The article implied that the women were lesbians.

1975 – Feminist writer Jill Johnston wrote an essay “Are Lesbians Gay?” in which she explained why she believed it was absurd for lesbians to align themselves with the gay movement. And thus began the fracturing and compartmentalizing of our community. 

1976 – In Florida, Willard Allen was released from a mental hospital 26 years after he was ordered by a judge to be held there for having sex with another man. His doctors had been recommending his release for almost 20 years.

1980 – The American Journal of Psychiatry published an article recommending religion as a cure for homosexuality.

1981 –  The Worldwide Church of God (now Grace Communion International) published “The Plain Truth,” which speculated that the illnesses being diagnosed in gay men were God’s penalty for promiscuity.

1982 – The US House of Representatives voted to provide $2.6 million in funding to the Centers for Disease Control to fight AIDS.  The amount of money that was mere peanuts considering the severity of the disease.

1986 – After being convicted of sodomy, a Georgia man was fined $1,000, sentenced to 10 years probation, and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

1988 – The first World AIDS Day was sponsored by the World Health Organization.  World AIDS Day is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection.  Between 1981 and 2007 alone AIDS had killed more than 25 million people and an estimated 33.2 million people worldwide were living with HIV making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.  

World AIDS Day was first conceived in August 1987  by James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers for the Global Programme on AIDS at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. Bunn and Netter took their idea to Dr. Jonathan Mann, Director of the Global Programme on AIDS (now known as UNAIDS). Dr. Mann liked the concept, approved it, and agreed with the recommendation that the first observance of World AIDS Day should be December 1st.

Get tested and play safe or take PReP.  AIDS is not over yet.  The responsibility is your own.

1989 – African-American dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey died of complications from AIDS. Ailey, an African-American choreographer and activist founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. and is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance. His company gained the nickname “Cultural Ambassador to the World” because of its extensive international touring. Alvin Ailey’s choreographic masterpiece Revelations is believed to be the best known and most often seen modern dance performance.

1997  The National Black Lesbian Gay Leadership Forum participated in a meeting with President Clinton to encourage greater inclusion of African American gays and lesbians in the President’s Initiative on Race.

1998 – Officials in Miami Florida voted 7-6 to pass a law prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians in employment and housing. Anita Bryant was not happy.

1999 – On the 700 Club, televangelist Pat Robertson denounced Canada’s leaders because a commercial printer who refused to print stationary for the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives lost a suit charging that he violated Canadian law. He urged Canadian viewers to “throw out those crazies who are now running the country.” He implied that a pastor who said that incest and child molestation are wrong could be imprisoned for holding such beliefs. .

2004 – Project Runway debuts on Bravo and introduces viewers to avuncular judge Tim Gunn and his catchphrase, “Make it work!” The popular reality series includes many openly lesbian and gay contestestants and judges and most recently on this seasons Project Runway All Stars its first transsexual contestant

2012 – West Point’s military chapel hosts its first same-sex wedding.