Lesbian Connection: How a grassroots magazine shaped generations of queer women
For half a century, Lesbian Connection has been more than just a magazine — it’s been a lifeline, newsletter, public forum and rallying cry for queer women worldwide.
For half a century, Lesbian Connection has been more than just a magazine — it’s been a lifeline, newsletter, public forum and rallying cry for queer women worldwide. Launched in September 1974 as a humble, grassroots publication, this reader-written magazine has survived the test of time, connecting women-loving women through personal stories, advice columns and community updates long before social media made such communication second nature.
The inspiration for Lesbian Connection magazine, affectionately known as “LC” or “Elsie” by its readers, struck during a cross-country road trip in 1973. Michigan taxi driver Margy Lesher and her then-girlfriend, Goldie, decided to hop in their car and “go around the country looking for the lesbians,” Lesher recalled.
The couple stayed with other lesbians they met along the way and collected names and addresses to stay connected with the greater Sapphic community. Feeling inspired after their weekslong journey, the duo decided to host the first Midwest Lesbian Conference in Lansing, Michigan, in the spring of 1974. However, they found it challenging to advertise the event, so they started the magazine so lesbians around the globe could share with one another and promote events of mutual interest.
Margy Lesher and her puppet monkey, Shyne, at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in 1983.Joan E Biren via Lesbian Connection“From our travels, we realized there were women all over doing things. They were starting bookstores and starting to publish books and records. Lesbian albums had just started coming out, and I figured it was great to have all these things, but if lesbians didn’t know about them, they were never going to succeed,” Lesher said, adding that the goal of the magazine was “to have a way that all the lesbians who were doing all these great things [could] get the word out about what they were doing.”
Lesher formed a cohort of nine lesbians called "The Ambitious Amazons," and the group, along with several other volunteers, took over a women’s center in Lansing, Michigan, to assemble the first issue. With ink-stained fingers, the women stapled together mimeographed pages to get the copies out to their earliest subscribers.
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