Arcus Flynn discusses her early life and her struggle with isolation and depression, her eventual discovery of the Daughters of Bilitis meetings and the community and friendships she found there. Arcus talks about the early importance of roles assumed by lesbians in the community (butch/femme), her involvement with the Women’s Rights movement, her evolution from Catholicism to born-again pagan spirituality (the Irish triad: truth, knowledge, and nature), and her discovery of herbology and natural healing.
Martha Shelley is interviewed in New York in 1989. She talks about being a lesbian in New York from the 1960s, the negative views of lesbians portrayed by psychologists, the bar scene, roles and her use of a pseudonym. She talks about finding DOB, the meetings and discussions that took place, and her contributions to the Ladder. She talks about Jean Powers and other members of DOB and describes the members as mixed race, working class, couples and singles. She also talks about her political activism in terms of DOB, peace, civil rights and the Stonewall Riots, including the marches she was involved in and the speeches she made.
