lesbian: Last News

Cheryl Jennings died peacefully on Oct. 11 after a brief illness in hospice care in Rockville, Md., with friends at her side. She was 77.

Cheryl grew up in Tennessee, West Virginia, and Florida, according to a statement released by friends. She served in the U.S. Navy, where she used her eagle eyes as a photo intel specialist. After leaving the Navy, she majored in art at San Diego State University and had a career as a graphic designer and production coordinator. She moved to the Washington, D.C. area in the early 1980s. In 2002, she moved to Harper’s Ferry, W.Va. She returned to Rockville, Md. in 2024.

A beautiful paradox of Cheryl’s life was being both a leader in many areas and an avowed introvert. Her gifts for bringing women together in the lesbian community and for sharing her love of the natural world with others shone through her, according to friends. But she also reveled in solitude while using her extensive artistic talent to capture natural beauty and whimsy, often by experimenting with new techniques.

In the 1980s, when many lesbians were socially isolated, Cheryl provided a forum for connection and community as co-founder of a lesbian “rap” (discussion) group. The Rap Group met weekly to discuss issues relevant to lesbians at the time. Cheryl loosely based the group on the Parisian salons of the early 20th century. Many women formed lifelong friendships with Cheryl and other Rap Group attendees. Cheryl provided a safe, warm and welcoming space for lesbians at a time when being a lesbian could cost one a job, housing, or loss of family and friends. During her time as the host, she realized aging lesbians were nearly invisible and very vulnerable to mistreatment and were often silenced by mainstream society. So, Cheryl co-founded Passages, a groundbreaking organization that hosted annual conferences about lesbians and aging for over a decade in the D.C. area.

Another way Cheryl combined serving others and communing with nature was as a pioneer in