A little more on the Daughters of Bilitis. Marcia Gallo wrote Different Daughters A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement, published by Seal Press. I loved this book because it records for us how the Daughters of Bilitis evolved from a secret social society, an alternative to bars, to an organization publishing a lesbian feminist magazine, The Ladder. The magazine is available online. I’ve read every issue, and arguments about social vs political lesbians, married lesbians, mothers of sons are all familiar. Gallo describes how and why the organization folded. Its most valuable asset, in my opinion, was the mailing list, a card file containing the largest collection of lesbian names and addresses in the history of the world. This mailing list ended up at a lesbian press founded by one of the Ladder’s editors, Barbara Grier, and with that asset she got Naiad Press off the ground.
The queering of illness is extremely frustrating. However, online content creators aren't helping the situation, especially those who see a mask being worn in public and immediately complain to their audiences about the 'Covid-obsessed' rather than considering other possibilities, like the 'immunosuppressed'. It's creating empathy fatigue in the general population and I can see people around me with illness/disability who are increasingly isolating themselves and hiding their struggles to avoid being disparaged as woke. In light of the euthanasia debate, this is not a healthy direction for society to be going in.
Thank you both for being a light it what was starting to feel an inevitable tunnel of queer doom in Bristol! It is giving me hope and confidence to put my head above the parapet and resist!
The discussion about disability and trans was particularly interesting.
I think some people seem to want to be in the 'underdog' position. Maybe because they want to make it clear that they are not in the bullying position? So, if they are not an ethnic minority or same sex attracted, then supporting a trans partner, or being NB or 'trans' to the extent of saying you are, or being 'disabled' are identities that they can take on and say 'oh look at me I'm discriminated against'. There was maybe some of this with political lesbians in the 70s and 80s too?
It's tricky to talk about this without being offensive to people who are genuinely discriminated against by mainstream culture, but I think that people who take on an 'identity' that is discriminated against in this way deserve to be called out on it. Isn't it weird that Rachel Delazel was crucified for pretending to be black but there's a whole 'progressive' movement about pretending to be female?
Lovely to have you both back and glad you are on the mend Julie. I had a good chuckle today at some of the podcast, can’t remember which bit/s as I listened earlier in the day and I’m having an amnesiac moment like your year review 🤣 Hoping to come and see you both at The Oxford Literary festival.
I have very mixed feelings about the Melania movie thing. On one hand, I want to hear what you have to say about it, on the other, I hate the idea of any money going towards that abominable company. Be sure and heckle the screen for us, and yell, "Where are the rest of the credits?" at the end.
Would be interested to hear/read from either of you about the LGBT Youth Scotland situation, especially after Julie’s excellent podcast about Surrey Pride
I highly recommend the Void if removed substack, it’s about misinformation and AI as it relates to sex and gender. He has articles about things like wikipedia’s editing rules and false consensus around things like lgb Alliance or the cass review affecting what AI tells people about contentious issues like the ones we spend a lot of time thinking about.
Do the non-binaries not engage with AI because the building block of computing is the binary code?? It’s triggering for them 🤭
A little more on the Daughters of Bilitis. Marcia Gallo wrote Different Daughters A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement, published by Seal Press. I loved this book because it records for us how the Daughters of Bilitis evolved from a secret social society, an alternative to bars, to an organization publishing a lesbian feminist magazine, The Ladder. The magazine is available online. I’ve read every issue, and arguments about social vs political lesbians, married lesbians, mothers of sons are all familiar. Gallo describes how and why the organization folded. Its most valuable asset, in my opinion, was the mailing list, a card file containing the largest collection of lesbian names and addresses in the history of the world. This mailing list ended up at a lesbian press founded by one of the Ladder’s editors, Barbara Grier, and with that asset she got Naiad Press off the ground.
https://guides.loc.gov/lgbtq-studies/before-stonewall/daughters-of-bilitis
The queering of illness is extremely frustrating. However, online content creators aren't helping the situation, especially those who see a mask being worn in public and immediately complain to their audiences about the 'Covid-obsessed' rather than considering other possibilities, like the 'immunosuppressed'. It's creating empathy fatigue in the general population and I can see people around me with illness/disability who are increasingly isolating themselves and hiding their struggles to avoid being disparaged as woke. In light of the euthanasia debate, this is not a healthy direction for society to be going in.
Thank you both for being a light it what was starting to feel an inevitable tunnel of queer doom in Bristol! It is giving me hope and confidence to put my head above the parapet and resist!
The discussion about disability and trans was particularly interesting.
I think some people seem to want to be in the 'underdog' position. Maybe because they want to make it clear that they are not in the bullying position? So, if they are not an ethnic minority or same sex attracted, then supporting a trans partner, or being NB or 'trans' to the extent of saying you are, or being 'disabled' are identities that they can take on and say 'oh look at me I'm discriminated against'. There was maybe some of this with political lesbians in the 70s and 80s too?
It's tricky to talk about this without being offensive to people who are genuinely discriminated against by mainstream culture, but I think that people who take on an 'identity' that is discriminated against in this way deserve to be called out on it. Isn't it weird that Rachel Delazel was crucified for pretending to be black but there's a whole 'progressive' movement about pretending to be female?
Lovely to have you both back and glad you are on the mend Julie. I had a good chuckle today at some of the podcast, can’t remember which bit/s as I listened earlier in the day and I’m having an amnesiac moment like your year review 🤣 Hoping to come and see you both at The Oxford Literary festival.
I have very mixed feelings about the Melania movie thing. On one hand, I want to hear what you have to say about it, on the other, I hate the idea of any money going towards that abominable company. Be sure and heckle the screen for us, and yell, "Where are the rest of the credits?" at the end.
Would be interested to hear/read from either of you about the LGBT Youth Scotland situation, especially after Julie’s excellent podcast about Surrey Pride
I highly recommend the Void if removed substack, it’s about misinformation and AI as it relates to sex and gender. He has articles about things like wikipedia’s editing rules and false consensus around things like lgb Alliance or the cass review affecting what AI tells people about contentious issues like the ones we spend a lot of time thinking about.
0:40 hellos
11:54 LGB mortality rates
19:52 a sapphic literary hoax
21:57 Mondrian and Marlow Moss
29:15 the queer history of Norwich
34:31 are enbies scared of AI?
44:09 finale