Questionnaire on Issues in Lesbian History

Abstract

A decade ago, only a few women believed that lesbians even had a history, much less that careful research would uncover the rich historical evidence now coming into view. The isolation and fear of discovery we felt prior to the 1970's damned us to a continuation of that very isolation. It was impossible in those emotionally turbulent times for most individual lesbians involved in a constant struggle for their very survival (both mental and physical) to see that we did indeed share a collective history, much less to do the research necessary to unearth it. Now both individual researchers and historians, as well as groups such as the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Buffalo Lesbian Oral History Project, and others have begun working on the local level to uncover, preserve, and expand our knowledge of lesbian lives, communities, and the historical context which surrounds them.