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the prom queen, 1991 by Nancy Andrews

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Little admin/blogger update & request here:

I know most of you follow this blog casually to see cool throwback photos of queer women, and while that is definitely the main objective I have, I also do love researching and sharing the more serious and complex issues of queer history, and because of that, I do make goals with what I want to include in my posts and my standards for posting. One of my current goals with this blog is to include more posts/photos from outside the USA. This is difficult because I source all my photos from archive and museum sites, not other blogs/accounts, to ensure proper crediting and so I can make sure I fully understand the context of the photo before posting here (this does not apply to reblogs, though I try to only reblog from tumblrs I trust). I am American and English is the only language I am fluent in, so it is a bit difficult to find good digital resources online from other countries (at the moment I am focused on Latam and Europe). If anyone (especially anyone international) has any research recommendations, please send me a message or respond to this post! Thank you to all who read this <3

-S (owner and operator)

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1997 cover of the Mexican magazine LeS VOZ, a feminist publication for lesbians

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Dykes with attitude: Read my lips from the August 1992 issue of Gay Times

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women kissing at the 1990 National Bisexual Conference in San Francisco, CA

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Nadine Hwang (1902-1972), the daughter of a Chinese diplomat father and Belgian mother, was one of the first female Chinese pilots and was an honorary colonel in the Chinese army in the 1920s. In the 30s, Hwang moved to Paris and became the chauffeur and lover of influential writer Natalie Clifford Barney. Hwang may have worked with to help the French Resistance. In 1944, Hwang was deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp as a “political prisoner.” On Christmas Eve, a prisoner in the same camp began singing Christmas carols for other French speakers. Hwang requested a song from Madame Butterfly, and the prisoner sang Un Bel dì Vedremo for her. The prisoner was Nelly Mousset Vos, a singer had had worked as a courier for the Belgian Resistance against the Nazis. The two women quickly fell in love. A few months later, Mousset Vos was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp where she almost died. After the war ended, the two women reunited and moved to Venezuela. They lived there together for twenty years, then moved back to Belgium where they spent the rest of their lives together.

Sources: This article from the Europa Creativa Media Desk Andalucia and this page from the Every Face Has a Name initiative website.

Nadine Hwang pictured with her lover, Nelly Mousset Vos (second in from left) and other friends at a New Year’s party in their apartment in Caracas, Venezuela circa 1965.

via the Every Face Has a Name Initiative

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Nadine Hwang pictured with her lover, Nelly Mousset Vos (second in from left) and other friends at a New Year’s party in their apartment in Caracas, Venezuela circa 1965.

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This is a great explanation of something I have tried to convey over the years in this blog and the reason it takes me so long to post. I research a lot to try to confirm the nature and identities involved in a relationship before posting!

The Importance of Studying Queerness in Context.

When studying queer history, one always has to keep in mind two seemingly contradictory things: firstly, that queerness and queer people have always existed, but at the same time, that queerness and queer identities have not always existed the way they exist today.

Modern queer terms and identities did not exist to queer people in the past. They would not have thought of themselves as "gay" or "trans" or even "queer." While these modern terms may seem to fit certain historic individuals, these individuals would not have thought of themselves as such, and it would not be a part of their lived experience. To apply the modern identities of queerness to history is to erase the lives and experiences of queer people in history, and care must always be taken to understand queer history within the context of its time.

When looking at queer history online, there is a *lot* of misinformation and misidentification out there simply because people are eager to apply modern queerness to history, often in places where it doesn't belong.

A lot of old photos get misidentified as gay because they show two people of the same sex showing some level of physical affection towards each other. Okay, I'll admit that the open-mouth kissing photobooth pictures are probably actually gay, but an old picture of two men or two women holding hands or with their arms around each other, or even kissing on the cheek, were common shows of platonic affection.

I hate to break everyone's gay little hearts, but without explicit documentation saying so, assuming that these couples are all gay is putting modern queer identity in places where it simply didn't exist. The women in the final picture are sisters. The "not married" boys are bachelors interested in marrying women.

In the silent film Wings, the emotional climax of the film comes in the form of a kiss exchanged between the characters played by Jack Powell and David Armstrong. It often gets attributed as the first gay kiss in cinema history, even on the fucking YouTube clip I found:

Except it isn't gay. The two men spend the whole film fighting over who gets to be Clara Bow's boyfriend. When Richard Arlen's character is fatally wounded, his dear friend rushes to his side and kisses him goodbye, because in the 1920s, that was considered the ultimate show of friendship. The movie ends with Jack Powell falling in love with Clara Bow.

Similarly, a kiss shared between Lillian and Dorothy Gish in the 1921 movie Orphans of the Storm often gets attributed as being queer, but it wasn't.

They were sisters playing sisters. None of this was considered unusual.

Pooh-poohing on all of these images that so many people on the internet breathlessly and joyously laud as proud gay history isn't fun. It makes me feel like I'm fucking Ben Shapiro. But if misinformation is allowed to flourish, it allows people like Ben Shapiro to come in and make the argument that queerness is a modern invention and queer people didn't exist in the past.

Everyone loves to see queerness represented in history, but the fact is that none of the stuff in this post would have been seen as explicitly gay and thus shouldn't be called gay today. If we are to understand queer history in its fullness and richness, it is absolutely crucial that we get it right. We owe it to our queer ancestors to recognize, honor, and not embellish the actual lives they lived.

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LGBT co-op members at Yale University c. 1986

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Here is the article I found on the life and work of Nancy Valverde for anyone interested! It was written by Caitlin Hernandez, a queer Latine journalist. You can find more of their work through their profile on LAist (the website linked) or their profile on Twitter/X @ caitlinherdez

Photos of Nancy Valverde, a Chicana gender nonconforming lesbian who was routinely arrested for violating L.A.’s cross-dressing ban throughout the 50s and has been credited as helping overturn the ban. Valverde died at the age of 92 in March of 2024.

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personal/blog update post:

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in so long, wonderful people! My first year of college is coming to a close in a month and it’s been a pretty intense semester! I am taking some classes this summer but I think I will have more time to dedicate to this blog now. I love updating when I can and appreciate all of you for supporting this project <3

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Photos of Nancy Valverde, a Chicana gender nonconforming lesbian who was routinely arrested for violating L.A.’s cross-dressing ban throughout the 50s and has been credited as helping overturn the ban. Valverde died at the age of 92 in March of 2024.

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Charlotte Cushman, 19th century Shakespearien actress, and her partner, writer Matilda Hays

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Life partners Lori Sheffer (left) and Daria Pascale (right) at the 1993 March on Washington. Lori posts content about the couple on her TikTok account @IAMShamanicMedium. They have now been together for 35 years.

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Lesbian couple (1972), photographed by Kay Tobin at the National Student Association in Washington, D.C., Summer of 1972

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Sandi Toksvig (television presenter, comedian, and political activist) and her wife Peta Stewart with their newborn daughter, Jesse, in 1988

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great addition thank you!

Tove Jansson (right), creator of Moomin, and her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä (left), an accomplished Finnish artist