The Stage

1970s: Gay Liberation and Lesbian Feminism (cont’d)

Publishing in the ’70s

The newsletters that emerged in communities across the country tell the story of gay liberation and lesbian feminist activism of this decade. Novels written in this decade started to take a different and more positive tone than the earlier pulp novels. Shown here is a 1977 photograph of lesbian author Valerie Taylor.

Lesbian Connection, an extremely long-running publication, was started in 1975 by the Ambitious Amazons collective in East Lansing, Michigan as a way to share news and ideas in the lesbian feminist community. They also kept track of women willing to serve as “contact dykes” in each city, someone whom traveling lesbians could contact.

Come out!, which appealed to both lesbians and gay men, appeared in 1969 in New York City. It had a short life. Periodicals such as these are important artifacts of the time, providing both information and visual reminders of the era.

	Tee A. Corrine. Photograph of Valerie Taylor, 1977. Valerie Taylor Papers. Human Sexuality Collection. [zoom]
	Come out! Spring-Summer Issue, 1971. Human Sexuality Collection. [zoom]
	Come out! Winter 1972. Human Sexuality Collection. [zoom]
	Lesbian Connection, Vol. I, No. 4, March 1975. Human Sexuality Collection. [zoom]

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