Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives

- And now, a pretty ballad

that's climbing the charts: "Tell Laura I love her."

It's a tragic tale of teenage love, folks.

Honey, maybe it would be easier

for Laura if she didn't see you again.

But I need to see her.

Laura?

I just had to come and say goodbye.

Bill drove me.

Oh, Meg.

I thought you might be coming with me.

No, I just had...

Come with me!

Oh Meg, we could be so happy.

Please.

Please.

All aboard!

No.

I was such a fool

to fall in lo ve with you

I was such a fool

to think you 'd love me too

cause suddenly something happened

your love flickered and died

but mine

mine kept right on burning

then burst into a torch

impossible to hide

I was such a fool

to think that you were mine

- my mother was having a bit of a problem with me,

you know, my sexuality, and so,

keely moll rock creek, b.C.

I remember once... she writing me

that she was reading these books

so that she could understand me better,

and I thought that was the worst kind of iiteratu re

she could read, next to the Kinsey report.

- The books were displayed with the other books,

with mysteries and westerns and everything,

Stephanie ozard Victoria, b.C.

And the only way to identify them

was by pictures on the cover.

As soon as I'd see a picture of two women,

I'd say, "oh yeah, this has to be one."

Grab.

It was great.

And I used to take them babysitting.

When the people went out, I would sit and read

these lesbian novels when nobody was around.

- There was a golden age of lesbian writing

and publishing that came to pass

in the '50s and '60s.

And I think that we suddenly reached out and connected

with women who were very isolated

and sequestered almost in little towns

across the country.

I think maybe that's one reason why the paperback originals,

which did deal with a lesbian theme,

became so valuable to so many women.

Ann bannon Sacramento, California

they were widely distributed and they said

this is how it is,

this is who some of your sisters are.

I don't remember all the authors,

I just remember all the books, and there were tons of them,

and they all had great covers.

Very suggestive and entrancing.

And the stories were all pretty...

Sort of like the romance novels today.

There was sort of a formula... formula books.

Reva hutkin Victoria, b.C.

You know, butch meets straight little femme

and they fall in love

and at the end, of course, it had a tragic sort of ending.

It never...

Rarely worked out to anybody's...

Joy-

oh, well.

- I think women writing in the '503 and '603

for the paperback houses in particular

were often constrained by the kind of formula

that the publisher imposed on them.

There was some kind of retribution

that was essential at the end,

so you could let them have a little fun in the meantime.

And presumably, entertain the reader.

But it was not to go unpunished,

so at the end of a story like that,

one of the women or both had to die

or be essentially shipped out of the country,

or undergo some calamity

that would break her heart

or break her spirit or end her life.

If there was one good thing

that came out of gold medal books

leaving me to my own devices,

I think it was that I didn't have to do that.

My women survived.

They loved hard and they lost hard,

but they won a few, and they didn't die.

And then they'd find ways in the cover blurbs

to say, "must society reject me?"

Or this kind of very obvious none-too-subtle clue.

They didn't want it to be subtle.

They wanted people to know right away

that they were buying something that had to do

with a lesbian theme.

I liked "we too are drifting"

Lois m. Stuart Toronto, Ontario

and of course "the price of salt"

was great because it ended up happily

instead of this miserable situation

where the woman had to fall into somebody's arms.

You know, the old myth.

The whole world is full of stupid myths about women.

"All you have to do is meet a good man,

and you'll be all right. You won't need women anymore."

When I first started writing,

I would travel from Philadelphia,

where we were living, up to New York on the commuter train,

and beeline right down to greenwich village,

and sometimes I would spend long hours simply walking

up and down the streets of the village

to soak it up, to sort of make it mine

because I could only have these little moments,

these short periods of time.

It was never more than a week at a time,

and even a week was rare.

It mattered to me,

and therefore it was imprinted on all my senses

as something to take away with me and keep

and use to mine it for my subsequent writing.

It left me with a sort of magic place

in my mind and imagination

that's greenwich village in the 19503.

My grandmother would have said,

"it's a diamond in your pocket."

You carry that with you forever, and it feeds the stories.

- In the last 50 years, there's been

a revolutionary change in the status of women.

In most parts of the western world,

women can vote, own property,

and practice any profession within their capabilities.

Beauty, however,

is still one of the chief attributes of women.

The woman of today is trying to solve her problems

in the way of the 20th century.

Around her, she sees household aids of modern design:

Pressure cookers, freezers, tiny garbage disposal units,

lightweight irons, and a host more.

And she wants them all, but for many,

the ideal kitchen is still only a dream.

Whether it's careers

or cradles or both, the woman of today

in every field of activity

welcomes these new plans for better living.

Although she will never abandon her role as wife and mother,

she looks forward to a greater share

in the world of today and tomorrow.

A world which can be an adventure in happiness!

- Well, actually, I got married when I was just turned 21,

and I got involved with a friend,

basically it was a friendship,

and she had come across all these wonderful novels,

these lesbian novels,

and she said, "I'd like you to read this book,

I have a great book."

And then she gave me one, and she gave me another one,

and then she gave me another one.

By now, I was sort of getting hooked on the stories,

and, at some point, she sort of confessed,

"well, I think I'm like that."

And I totally freaked out and said, "oh no,

not like that!"

Whatever "that" was because it was all a new experience to me.

But eventually I sort of thought maybe I'm like "that" too.

Ultimately, we got it together,

and I just left my husband, and...

Sort of took on a new life.

And at one point, we thought,

all the lesbians obviously live in New York,

in greenwich village,

at least the books said that's where they all lived,

so we decided we had to go and find the lesbians.

So I put on what I thought

was my best butch clothing,

'cause we thought they were all butch and femme,

and I put on my red blazer,

and a tie, and a shirt, and dark pants,

and my lover wore a dress,

and off we went to greenwich village

to look for the lesbians!

We asked taxi drivers and kind of poked around