Thank You for the History!

Celebrating Women’s History Month

By Maria Espinal

Women have been making a difference for decades (including the women's right to vote in the late 1800s); some have been recognized for changing history itself and paving an easier path for our future, while others make a difference at a local level in politics, human rights, LGBT rights, reproductive right, entertainment, etc.

Women's History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981. In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women's History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women's History Month.” Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women's History Month to celebrate the contributions women have made in history.

As we recognize women's achievements, celebrate and thank them for their efforts here is a compact list of gay/lesbian women who have made a difference for themselves, for you, me and others to come. I invite you to use current resources to look up more women who continue the fight for equality.

1. Sally Ride became the first woman astronaut selected to go into space on a sixday STS-7 Space Shuttle mission aboard Challenger in June 1983. Her in-flight suit and other items are on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. It was not known until she passed in 2012 that her 27-year partner was a woman, Tam Elizabeth O'Shaughnessy.

2. Robin Tyler became the first out lesbian on U.S. national television when she revealed her sexuality on a 1978 Showtime special, “The 1st Annual Funny Women's Show,” hosted by Phyllis Diller. The same year she released her comedy album, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Groom, the first comedy album by an out lesbian.

3. Edie Windsor led one of the most significant marriage equality supreme court cases—the overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act. When the Supreme Court justices ruled 5-4, Windsor's case was the first time a same-sex marriage was recognized in the United States. On June 27, 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional and that the federal government cannot discriminate against married lesbian and gay couples for the purposes of determining federal benefits and protections.

4. Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon founded The Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco in 1955, the first national lesbian political and social organization in the country. In 2004, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon became the first same-sex couple to be legally married in the United States.

5. Karine Jean-Pierre, 48, is an American political advisor and has served as the White House press secretary since May 13, 2022. She is the first Black person and the first openly LGBT person to be White House press secretary.

6. In 1973, Sally Miller Gearhart became the first open lesbian to obtain a tenure-track faculty position when she was hired by San Francisco State University, where she helped establish one of the first women and gender study programs in the country.

7. Not a well-known name to everyone, but Nancy Cárdenas is an icon in the history of feminism and the struggle for civil rights in Mexico. Cárdenas made history in her native country after becoming the first woman to come out of the closet and publicly defend sexual diversity during an interview on national television in 1973. She co-founded the first homosexual organization, ‘El Frente de Liberación Homosexual’ (The Homosexual Liberation Front). In 1978 she led the first gay pride march in México.

8. Alice Walker became the first AfricanAmerican woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Color Purple” in 1982. Walker's work as a queer woman of color has been vital to the civil rights movement.

9. In 2008 Rachel Maddow became first openly gay or lesbian anchor of a major prime-time news program in the United States, hosting “The Rachel Maddow Show” on U.S. cable network MSNBC.

10. Stormé DeLarverie, rumored to have thrown the first punch of the Stonewall uprising, singer Stormé DeLarverie was a pioneer of gender expression by staying true to herself. DeLarverie is remembered as a gay civil rights icon.

11. Katharine Lee Bates, the famed composer of “America the Beautiful” never married, but lived in Wellesley with Katharine Coman, the founder of the Department of Economics at Wellesley College. The two had what we now know as a “Boston Marriage,” a co-habitational relationship between two educated unmarried women.

12. Jane Castor is politician and former police chief serving as the 59th mayor of Tampa. Jane was the first woman and first openly gay person to serve as Chief of Police of the Tampa Police Department from 2009 to 2015 and the first openly gay person to be elected Mayor of Tampa, FL.

12. Tammy Baldwin became the first openly lesbian non-incumbent ever elected to US Congress in 1998, and the first open lesbian ever elected to Congress, winning Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district seat. Baldwin became the first openly LGBT woman elected to the House of Representatives and to the Senate in 1999 and 2013 to present, respectively.

"Becoming Visible: The First Black Lesbian Conference" was held at The Women's Building in San Francisco, California, from October 17 to 19, 1980. It has been credited as the first conference for African-American lesbian women; 200 women attended.

Vice Versa, is the earliest known U.S. periodical published especially for lesbians, distributed in Los Angeles. Only 9 issues were published by Lisa Ben (an anagram of "lesbian"), real name: Edythe Eyde. It was published June 1947 to February 1948, 14 pages.