00:00:48.125 --> 00:00:52.583
There was no collection of work about lesbians.

00:00:53.166 --> 00:00:55.083
And old lesbians in particular.

00:00:55.750 --> 00:00:57.000
What have they done with their lives?

00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:39.708
We have over 800 life stories in the collection.

00:01:40.125 --> 00:01:41.958
We were on the road a lot.

00:01:46.083 --> 00:01:51.000
These are all completed stories.

00:01:52.125 --> 00:01:59.000
First of all, you have to understand the
time in my life that all of this is happening.

00:02:00.375 --> 00:02:05.791
I had been in a long-term relationship
of 33 years.

00:02:05.791 --> 00:02:09.458
And my partner died in 1985.

00:02:10.291 --> 00:02:14.291
Because I had been in public school work,

00:02:14.291 --> 00:02:17.916
I had to be very, very careful and very discreet.

00:02:17.916 --> 00:02:22.416
So I did not really know anything about
the gay community here in Houston.

00:02:23.208 --> 00:02:28.208
So I set off to get some information, to
maybe start something here in town.

00:02:28.833 --> 00:02:32.875
And out of that came
Lesbians Over Age Fifty.

00:02:39.375 --> 00:02:46.958
There were some women in LOAF who were
experiencing end-of-life problems.

00:02:46.958 --> 00:02:52.250
We felt we needed to collect
personal stories, first-person,

00:02:52.250 --> 00:02:55.375
so that the information is accurate.

00:02:55.375 --> 00:02:56.333
It comes from them.

00:02:57.208 --> 00:02:59.666
Each interview produces two books.

00:02:59.666 --> 00:03:02.125
One for the interviewee
and one for the archive.

00:03:06.708 --> 00:03:12.500
We're very proud of what the Old Lesbian
Oral Herstory Project has accomplished.

00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:14.416
And we're not done yet.

00:03:17.416 --> 00:03:20.208
So this is Houston.

00:03:21.083 --> 00:03:24.125
Little buses showing the different
road trips that Arden took

00:03:24.125 --> 00:03:28.000
and the flights that she's taken
to do interviews.

00:03:28.291 --> 00:03:30.833
So I was partnered with Arden's niece.

00:03:31.125 --> 00:03:34.583
Having her do my oral history
was part of my training

00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.291
to become an interviewer for the project.

00:03:37.708 --> 00:03:42.333
For some women, it's the first time
that they've ever said out loud,

00:03:42.333 --> 00:03:43.375
"I'm a lesbian."

00:03:43.958 --> 00:03:47.750
The hardest part of the training
is not the training.

00:03:47.750 --> 00:03:52.333
It is figuring out the communication with
the woman that you're interviewing.

00:05:07.083 --> 00:05:08.083
My first crush?

00:05:09.083 --> 00:05:11.916
Oh, madly in love with
my junior high PE teacher.

00:05:14.083 --> 00:05:16.125
I bet you've heard that story before, too.

00:05:17.291 --> 00:05:19.541
Were you afraid of the feelings in any way?

00:05:19.541 --> 00:05:21.208
No, I didn't know what it was.

00:05:23.375 --> 00:05:24.625
Had no words for it.

00:05:24.625 --> 00:05:27.041
There was no vocabulary at that time.

00:05:27.375 --> 00:05:29.208
No organizations.

00:05:29.208 --> 00:05:31.458
No periodicals.

00:05:31.458 --> 00:05:33.208
No way to find each other.

00:07:49.791 --> 00:07:53.666
My first lover, I was a freshman
in college and she was a senior.

00:07:54.791 --> 00:07:59.291
We have, over the years, referred to it as
"spontaneous combustion."

00:08:00.583 --> 00:08:02.791
Because we were the first for each other.

00:10:56.166 --> 00:10:59.625
We had two "purges" while I was
in college.

00:10:59.625 --> 00:11:06.916
And as many as maybe 50 young women,

00:11:06.916 --> 00:11:09.041
usually over a holiday break,

00:11:10.583 --> 00:11:12.083
didn't come back to school.

00:11:13.208 --> 00:11:17.541
At that time, women could not qualify
for a mortgage.

00:11:17.708 --> 00:11:19.541
You couldn't get a credit card.

00:11:19.958 --> 00:11:26.916
There were all kinds of blocks
for what women were able to do legally.

00:13:53.833 --> 00:13:55.166
Okay, Arden!

00:13:56.083 --> 00:13:58.250
I need the key to the car, my dear.

00:13:58.250 --> 00:13:58.958
Love ya!

00:13:58.958 --> 00:14:00.541
Love you, sweetie. Thank you.

00:14:00.541 --> 00:14:02.000
All right. Off we go.

00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:03.666
Off like a herd of turtles.

00:14:04.125 --> 00:14:05.041
Bye!

00:14:05.708 --> 00:14:08.625
After three years of waiting,
I'm delighted to say,

00:14:08.625 --> 00:14:12.333
Welcome to Queer History South 2022!

00:14:14.833 --> 00:14:16.541
This is where the interviewers are.

00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:21.375
I'm the North Carolina dot, but I've since
moved to South Carolina.

00:14:21.708 --> 00:14:24.375
We fall a little bit in love with
everybody we interview.

00:14:25.041 --> 00:14:29.333
So I interviewed Geraldine, ex-nun,
in 2014.

00:14:29.708 --> 00:14:33.375
And I did the U-Haul thing down to
her place in 2017.

00:14:34.541 --> 00:14:38.458
The young folks today don't appreciate
how good they have it.

00:14:38.708 --> 00:14:41.791
We can all read about "Don't Ask,
Don't Tell" in the military.

00:14:43.375 --> 00:14:47.333
I can tell you, I would walk across the
street to be away from somebody

00:14:47.333 --> 00:14:49.791
that was suspected of being gay.

00:14:49.791 --> 00:14:52.458
Because proximity was guilt.

00:14:53.041 --> 00:14:54.208
For me, this is liberating.

00:14:54.791 --> 00:14:59.041
You know, I get to wear this and go [blows
tongue] if anybody says anything to me.

00:14:59.041 --> 00:15:02.750
We got to know the work that they were
doing, Arden and now Barb.

00:15:02.750 --> 00:15:07.000
And I just love that unabashed,
unapologetic, like,

00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:10.000
"We're old lesbians. That's what we're
doing, we're preserving our own histories.”

00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.375
And I think it's really appealing
and refreshing.

00:15:13.208 --> 00:15:18.166
With lesbians, what we found is, we're
having to convince folks that they're important.

00:15:18.458 --> 00:15:21.125
We're going to these women and we're
saying, "Hey, can we have your materials?"

00:15:21.125 --> 00:15:22.208
"Oh, I don't have anything.”

00:15:22.208 --> 00:15:23.541
"Oh, I wasn't really involved."

00:15:23.541 --> 00:15:26.333
And then two breaths later,
they're telling you a story

00:15:26.333 --> 00:15:28.208
about how they started this amazing program.

00:15:28.541 --> 00:15:32.666
It may not have been hyper-visible,
and it may not have been on a grand scale.

00:15:32.666 --> 00:15:37.416
But it was extremely important to the
movement and, you know, all the resulting

00:15:37.416 --> 00:15:39.583
communities that sprang from
those folks you helped.

00:15:40.125 --> 00:15:44.416
Are there initiatives, or how can we get
this information to young queer people?

00:15:44.750 --> 00:15:46.000
I mean, it saves lives.

00:15:46.416 --> 00:15:46.791
Yeah.

00:15:47.541 --> 00:15:49.125
And I see that in the work I do.

00:15:49.250 --> 00:15:50.958
So we're over there whispering, like,

00:15:50.958 --> 00:15:52.416
“How can we get this digitalized?”

00:15:52.416 --> 00:15:55.125
Like, “How can we get this to people?”

00:15:55.416 --> 00:15:58.250
We can't afford to lose our history.

00:15:58.791 --> 00:15:59.541
All of it.

00:16:00.333 --> 00:16:02.583
All of it, without bias.

00:16:03.125 --> 00:16:06.041
You know, the truth has to be told.

00:16:06.041 --> 00:16:08.000
And the truth has to go forward.

00:16:08.666 --> 00:16:10.875
So carry on, y'all.

00:16:11.458 --> 00:16:12.625
Thank you. Thank you so much.

00:16:16.416 --> 00:16:17.083
Yes, ma'am.

00:16:18.083 --> 00:16:19.208
We chatted last night.

00:16:19.208 --> 00:16:20.083
Yes, ma'am, we did.

00:16:20.291 --> 00:16:22.666
We met originally through her brother.

00:16:22.666 --> 00:16:24.166
She said, "Would you like to dance?"

00:16:24.166 --> 00:16:25.208
And I said, “No.”

00:16:25.208 --> 00:16:27.041
Now this is in 1980.

00:16:27.041 --> 00:16:27.916
Yeah, 1980.

00:16:27.916 --> 00:16:28.541
So disco.

00:16:28.666 --> 00:16:31.250
Yes. And I said,
"No, I didn't really dance."

00:16:31.666 --> 00:16:34.291
And so she promptly got up
and went somewhere else

00:16:34.291 --> 00:16:35.791
and found somebody else to dance with.

00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.625
And I was like, "I don't like this.”

00:16:39.250 --> 00:16:40.666
“I really don't like this."

00:20:10.708 --> 00:20:15.833
This past May, when they had Pride march
here in Northampton,

00:20:15.833 --> 00:20:17.583
I wore this shirt.

00:20:17.583 --> 00:20:20.250
And everybody was, "Yes, yes, yes!"

00:20:20.250 --> 00:20:22.625
And all the young women were saying,

00:20:22.625 --> 00:20:24.875
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

00:20:27.250 --> 00:20:29.875
Here's the Lesbian Avengers shirt.

00:20:31.833 --> 00:20:36.875
1993, there was a woman's house was burned.

00:20:36.875 --> 00:20:41.125
And "dyke" was written on the street
in front of her house.

00:20:41.583 --> 00:20:45.125
And we demanded to talk to the mayor.

00:20:45.125 --> 00:20:47.583
And we said that it's not okay.

00:20:49.458 --> 00:20:50.916
This is a hate crime.

00:20:51.916 --> 00:20:54.375
Lesbian Avengers eat fire.

00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:00.000
Our lives were like activism, just by
being out and being who we are.

00:21:00.291 --> 00:21:04.750
These are all of Jackie's shirts.

00:21:04.750 --> 00:21:09.291
This one actually says,
"Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project."

00:21:09.583 --> 00:21:14.541
She left her partner of 22 years because
they were in the closet,

00:21:14.541 --> 00:21:16.583
and she couldn't take it anymore.

00:21:49.500 --> 00:21:52.166
And that's the Jackie I fell in love with.

00:21:52.166 --> 00:21:57.250
That was like one of the very first
pictures that we took together.

00:21:57.250 --> 00:22:01.750
And it just, it just makes me
feel like, you know.

00:22:02.458 --> 00:22:05.333
I was an intensive care nurse.

00:22:05.333 --> 00:22:11.375
And so I use a modality in my nursing
that's called therapeutic touch.

00:22:11.375 --> 00:22:13.458
So she said to me,

00:22:13.458 --> 00:22:16.500
"With all this talk about touching,”

00:22:16.500 --> 00:22:19.916
“how come you never gave me a hug?"

00:22:19.916 --> 00:22:20.958
And I said,

00:22:20.958 --> 00:22:23.958
"Because I knew that once I hugged you,”

00:22:23.958 --> 00:22:26.041
“I’d never let go."

00:22:26.375 --> 00:22:30.541
So that was, we hugged
and then we went to dinner.

00:22:30.541 --> 00:22:31.916
And the rest is herstory.

00:22:32.833 --> 00:22:37.833
We had the strength to stay together
for 26 years.

00:22:37.833 --> 00:22:42.083
Because we have been
willing to do the work

00:22:42.083 --> 00:22:45.875
that keeps relationships vital and alive.

00:24:29.875 --> 00:24:33.458
So what I love about hearing women's stories

00:24:33.458 --> 00:24:37.208
is how empowering it is for that woman

00:24:37.208 --> 00:24:41.958
to tell the story of her life
as if it mattered.

00:24:42.750 --> 00:24:46.958
This law had passed in California.

00:24:46.958 --> 00:24:49.333
I called up Arden and I said,

00:24:49.333 --> 00:24:51.708
"Hey, we're getting married.
You want to get married with us?”

00:24:51.708 --> 00:24:54.833
And she said, "Oh sure, that would be fabulous."

00:25:10.583 --> 00:25:15.416
We made a circle of their friends and our friends.

00:25:15.416 --> 00:25:21.583
And you hold on to the end of the yarn,
and you toss the ball across the circle.

00:25:55.250 --> 00:25:58.000
Eventually, everyone is connected.

00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:59.625
It makes it a story.

00:27:01.250 --> 00:27:09.833
So this started out as this cauldron, if
you will, to hold those stories.

00:27:09.833 --> 00:27:13.375
Because it feels alive to me.

00:27:13.375 --> 00:27:15.500
It doesn't feel dead.

00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:18.041
You are our success.

00:27:18.041 --> 00:27:23.250
You are the success of women working hard

00:27:23.250 --> 00:27:28.875
to make it okay to be a strong woman.

00:27:28.875 --> 00:27:30.625
And to be a lesbian.