Browse Items (4 total)
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SAGE's Second National Conference on Aging: The Many Faces of Activism for Middle Aged + Old Lesbians
Audio from SAGE's Second National Conference on Aging, which took place from May 5-6, 2000 in New York, NY.
The audio starts with a conversation with a woman discussing activism, being an out lesbian parent, and atheticism and answering questions from the auidence. She talks about "The Gay Games" and the healing effect of sports for women and girls. Questions from the audience include comments on finding community at the intersection of elder lesbians and sports.
At 9:41 the audio cuts to a panel discussion with Ruth Berman and Connie Kurtz. They play a clip of Ruthie + Connie's 1988 apperance on the Phil Donahue Show. Ruth and Connie talk about their personal hsitroy and early activism, their lawsuit against the New York City Board of Education for domestic partner benefits, the importance of being political and of coming out. They also talk about oening a counceling cener in their home and issues with the Butch/Femme Bianary.
At 28:41 the audio switches to Joan Nestle speaking about the Lesbian Herstory Archives and the importance of including reords about diverse Lesbian History.
AT 33:11 a woman from the aidence speaks from the perspective of radical lesbians who have never had children or been married and about expanding the lesbian agenda in the future. She reads from a a piece she wrote called “a week in the life of a 60 Year Old Lesbian” about her activism within the lesbian community. -
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P.D. Griffin, May 13, 1987
P.D. Griffin discusses her role in the Daughters of Bilitis and her relationship to the lesbian community. She also discusses her interests, which include softball and ukulele. -
Debra, February 20, 1980 (Tape 2)
Discusses her child, a son. He was the product of her one-day marriage. She kept him for about 8 months and then her brother and his wife took him and raised him. He would spend the summers with her until he was 12 and then he lived with her and spent the summers with her brother and his wife.
Believes lesbians make better mothers because they know more. She didn’t want her son to go into gay life because she felt it would be difficult for him, she doesn’t believe that gay men relationships last. She believes you can teach someone not to be gay.
They talk about gay men and lesbian relationships and social interactions. She would call upon her gay male friends to be her date to events that she needed a date, also sometimes family events. They talk about marriages between a gay man and gay woman. Debra says that she knew quite a few couples who had done that to put up a front, but that those relationships always worked out well. Debra also talks about marriage between two women. She never wanted to get married but knew women who did.
They also discuss alcoholism and drugs among the gay community.
On the second tape, Debra further discusses fights in the lesbian community. Madeline asks if she knew any lesbians who played sports in the 1940s and 1950s. Debra believes lesbians played sports but cannot definitely say so.