Lesbians’ relationships to gay men
1975
Barbara said for her the
relationship between lesbians and gay men has changed. “In my most
radical phase, in the 70s, it was so women focussed to the exclusion of
men, obviously we identified as lesbians and as such, with gay
liberation, but there were still difficulties because the men running
it found it hard to work with stroppy outspoken women, and the women
weren’t used to working with men who were patronising them etc so the
working relationships would break down, it was always a bit difficult.
Things have moved on a lot now, feminism has become more mellow as we
have got older, it’s much easier”.
Bridget said “I’ve always
been very fond of gay men, some of my best friends are gay men, if I
had to choose, I’d pick going out for dinner with a bunch of gay men
rather than lesbian feminists. I know their problems are different but
I’ve always felt a unity of cause, not a division, They are also
victims of masculinity. I was too frightened to put my head above the
parapet then but did so in terms of cross dressers, but I wouldn’t have
dared said I liked gay men back then. The group in power at the time
would really not have appreciated that view, and people like Stacey for
example could be extremely difficult. Barbara said, “Well Stacey was
the extreme end of it, but intimidating nevertheless”. Bridget said
“Other lesbians weren’t desperately interested in gay men partly
because they had no politics at all, and weren’t interested in them
being gay, now things have moved on and people see the commonalities”.
Contributed by: Barbara Carter, 53, Bridget Malin, 62