Browse Items (2 total)

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  Pat and DJ, November 11, 1986 (Tape 1)

  Side A: Liz and Madeline ask Pat and DJ for feedback on a draft of "Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold." Pat claims the book paints too rosy a picture of lesbian life, underplaying the prejudice most lesbians encountered in the 1940s and '50s. Both talk about the Buffalo bar scene in the 1940s and '50s: mentioned are Carousel, Bingo's, the Chesterfield, Ralph Martin's, the Mardi Gras, and the Midtown. The discussion shifts to relationships, faithfulness, and prostitutes.
  
  Recording has loud feedback sounds and squeaks at the beginning.
  
  Side B: Pat and DJ discuss bar denizens vs. lesbians who did not frequent bars and the "class" distinction there, and also the way non-butch lesbians looked down on butches. DJ describes how her long-term relationships were analogous to marriage, where she was the breadwinner and her partners were housewives who perhaps worked but did not "provide." Both discuss the fact that in the 1940s and '50s butches had the freedom to have affairs whereas femmes were expected to be faithful. This created an atmosphere of mistrust in which monogamous long-term relationships became very difficult.
  
  Recording has loud squeaks at the beginning, hisses throughout, and cuts off abruptly at the end.

  Tags Bars, Butch and femme, Discrimination, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Lesbian and gay experience, Lesbian bars, Lesbian community--New York (State)--New York, Lesbians--Discrimination, Lesbians--Identity, Madeline Davis, Prostitution, Relationships, Sex work
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  Mary Ann, October 15, 1988 (Tape 1)

  Side A: Mary Ann discusses her experiences going out in public with her girlfriends, and the treatment they receive at restaurants, bars, and on the street. She mentions that their public treatment is very often instigated by the masculine way her partners are dressed; she herself has always been very femme. Mary Ann talks about her incarceration for robbery, and her time in a psychiatric hospital for depression and attempted suicide.
  
  Side B: Mary Ann continues to discuss her time in jail. She took on a butch look, and began to receive small gifts under her cell door from femme girls in other divisions. She developed relationships with different girls that she worked with while in jail, and talks about lookouts, or "chickies," standing watch for girls who were with their partners in the showers or elsewhere. She then talks about her sex life with a long-term partner of 22 years, with whom she raised foster children. Later, she touches on her job as a dancer at Buffalo clubs, and a two-year period when she worked as a prostitute.

  Tags Bars, Discrimination, Fashion, Identity, Lesbian and gay experience, Lesbian bars, Lesbian community--New York (State), Lesbian mothers, Lesbian parents, Lesbians--Identity, Prostitution, Sex work, Suicide