“Separated, but far from alone”

2024/01/01 by Cameron Blevins, Annelise Heinz · 1 voice
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Historical Gender and Feminism Studies #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy

paper · pdf · doi:10.1525/phr.2024.93.3.417

openalex publication_date 2024/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11

Abstract

Our article examines how women built an expansive community during the 1970s and 1980s through the pages of Lesbian Connection, one of the era’s most widely circulated publications of the lesbian feminist movement. To reveal this community, we map thousands of locations that appeared in the periodical, revealing a geography that tilted toward rural areas and mid-sized cities instead of the major metropolitan centers that have received much of the attention within LGBTQ scholarship. Through the magazine’s reader-submitted content, advertisements for lesbian-owned businesses, and a directory of volunteers who served as local contacts for an area, Lesbian Connection bridged the spatial scales of long-distance media networks and in-person interactions to create a vibrant lesbian community that transcended region and locality.

Discussions

• Many thanks to our editor Brenda Frink at the PHR, our talented research assistants, and the LC editors themselves for their support. But most of all: thank you to the brilliant Annelise Heinz for bei [bsky, 1 points, 1 comments]

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