When I came out in 1998 I was the only LGBT person I’d ever known about. I thought I was completely alone until I saw Ellen on the cover of Time Magazine.
Little did I know I’d spend my entire adult life surrounded by queer women. It would be another 10 years before I learned anything about LGBT history and it was rarely lesbian history.
Until recently it was illegal in many places in the United States to discuss LGBT themes in public schools. I often wonder if my journey as a young queer woman would have been different if I’d learned about Elenor Roosevelt’s bisexuality or Audre Lorde’s lesbian feminist poetry.