#365daysoflesbians

[annoyinglydarkflower]

Bisexuality means I am free and I am as likely to want to love a woman as I am likely to want to love a man, and what about that? Isn’t that what freedom implies? If you are free, you are not predictable and you are not controllable. To my mind, that is the keenly positive, politicizing significance of bisexual affirmation… to insist upon the equal validity of all the components of social/sexual complexity.

June Jordan

source: @365daysoflesbians

[365daysoflesbians]

JANUARY 31: Patricia Velásquez (1971-)

Happy birthday to actress and supermodel, Patricia Velásquez! You might recognize Patricia from her starring turn in The Mummy, but today she is most well-known for being a lesbian icon as well as one of the very first Native American supermodels.

Patricia has over 20 film and TV credits to her filmography, including lesbian classics The L-Word and Liz in September (x).

Patricia Carola Velásquez Semprún was born on January 31, 1971 in Maracaibo, Venezuela. She was the fifth out of six children born to her mestizo father and Wayúu mother, a member of the indigenous Wayúu people of Venezuela. Both of her parents were teachers and due to the fact that her father worked for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), parts of Patricia’s childhood were also spent in Mexico and France.

After graduating high school in 1987, she made it to the Miss Venezuela pageant in 1989 where she represented the state of Guárico. Although she only placed as second runner-up, the pageant still served as the catalyst for Patricia’s modeling career. After finishing three years of college, she moved to Milan and began to pursue modeling and acting full time. She modeled for designers such as Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana throughout the 90s, but didn’t reach mainstream fame until the 1999 film The Mummy where she played the role of Anck-Su-Namun.

Patricia would reprise her famous role in The Mummy Returns in 2001, as well as be featured in episodes of Arrested Development and The L-Word. In 2002, the founded the Wayúu Tayá Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting the Wayúu, a Venezuelan indigenous group of which her family belongs. After disappearing from the spotlight for a while, Patricia resurfaced in 2015 with the publication of her memoir Straight Walk. In the book, she comes out as a lesbian and opens up about her relationship with the actress Sandra Bernhard. In addition to frequently being dubbed the world’s first Native American supermodel, many also consider Patricia to be the world’s first openly lesbian supermodel!

-LC

[365daysoflesbians]

MAY 27: Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)

The famed dancer Isadora Duncan was born on this day in 1877. She is remembered as “The Mother of Dance” as well as for causing scandal wherever she went by being an openly bisexual communist and atheist.

Isadora Duncan photographed in London some time between 1906 and 1912 (x).

Angela Isadora Duncan was born on May 26, 1877 in San Francisco, California. She was the youngest of four children born to Joseph and Mary Duncan. Her father worked as a successful banker for most of his life, but it was not long after Isadora’s birth that he was exposed for corruption and the family was thrown into poverty. Her parents would eventually divorce and her mother would move she and the children to Oakland, California and take up work as a seamstress and piano teacher. It was the family’s financial troubles that would ultimately introduce Isadora to dance; she and her siblings dropped out of school early on and taught dance to local children in order to make money.

She began to pursue dance as a serious career in 1896 when she joined the Augustin Daly theater company and moved to New York City. Isadora’s approach to dance was very nontraditional, though, and she quickly became disillusioned with the New York dance circuit’s strict reliance on the traditional pantomime style. She moved to London in 1898 and became a freelance performer, dancing and traveling around Europe for wealthy patrons. She would soon become a staple of European art society and a muse to several celebrities such as occultist Aleister Crowley, fashion designer Paul Poiret, and photographer Eadweard Muybridge.

Isadora had relationships with men and women throughout her life. She had three children all out of wedlock and with different men, but all three would tragically die before reaching adulthood. Her lovers included the famous actress Eleonora Duse, early feminist activist Lina Poletti, and the writer Mercedes de Acosta. The letters between her and Mercedes are the most well-preserved out of all her romantic correspondences. In one, Isadora wrote, “Mercedes, lead me with your little strong hands and I will follow you – to the top of a mountain. To the end of the world. Wherever you wish.”

Once her dance career began to wind down in her later years, it was Isadora’s scandalous love life for which she became most famous for. She would pass away in a tragic accent on September 14, 1927 in Nice, France. While riding in an Amilcar automobile of a friend, her long scarf became trapped in its open-spoked wheels; she was pulled out of the car and broke her neck. She was cremated and her ashes placed next to those of her late children.

-LC

[365daysoflesbians]

MAY 23: Annemarie Schwarzenbach (1908-1942)

The Swiss journalist, photographer, and lesbian icon, Annemarie Schwarzenbach, was born on this day in 1908.

One of the many photographs of Annemarie Schwarzenbach taken by her close friend and most likely her lover, Marianne Breslauer (x). 

Annemarie Minna Renée Schwarzenbach was born on May 23, 1908 in Zurich, Switzerland. Her family afforded her a privileged life, her father being a wealthy business who worked in the silk industry and her mother being the daughter of a prominent general in the Swiss army. Annemarie’s mother was also bisexual and an artist herself who loved photography; Renée Schwarzenbach’s bisexuality could possibly have been the reason Annemarie’s penchant for dressing in boy’s clothes and participating in “boy’s activities” was not punished during her childhood. She would later attend the University of Zurich, where she began having relationships with women.

One of Annemarie’s first serious partners was Erika Mann, daughter of the famous writer Thomas Mann. The two met in 1930 and although their romantic relationship would not last long, she, Erika, and Erika’s gay brother Klaus would all three remain lifelong friends. It was while living with Klaus in Berlin that Annemarie was introduced to hard drugs and the party lifestyle. A close friend, Ruth Landshoff, would later write that she “lived dangerously. She drank too much. She never went to sleep before dawn.” With the rise of the Nazis to power, she became estranged from her family, who were Nazi sympathizers and resented Annemarie’s antifascist beliefs and friendship with the Jewish Mann family.

Annemarie photographed with her lover Ella Maillart. Ella was a fellow travel writer and the two embarked on expansive travels together to places such as Afghanistan and Turkmenistan (x).

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Annemarie produced over 170 articles and 50 photo reports for Swiss, German, and American magazines. She would spend the majority of her life traveling and writing around Europe with colorful companions such as the photographer Marianne Breslauer, the Manns, and her eventual husband, Achille-Claude Clarac. Achille was a gay French diplomat who sought marriage for the same reason Annemarie did: social convenience. With the cover of her marriage, she was free to seduce many women on her travels, including ethnologist Ella Maillart, the daughter or a Turkish Ambassador, Baronessa Margot von Opel, and the writer Carson McCullers.

As the years went on, Annemarie’s drug addiction worsened. Despite her several suicide attempts, it was a biking accident that would eventually lead to Annemarie’s death on November 15, 1942. After falling from her bike in September of that year and sustaining a serious head injury, she was shut up in a clinic by her family, where she was misdiagnosed and was refused access to any visitors that were not members of the Schwarzenbach family. Although her mother destroyed her letters and diaries following her death, the people she called her true family – her LGBT friends and companions – preserved her professional writings and photographs in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern.  

-LC

[365daysoflesbians]

DECEMBER 31: Isabella of Parma (1741-1763)

The granddaughter of King Louis XV of France, Princess Isabella of Parma, was born on this day in 1741. Isabella was related to the royal families of both France and Spain and is remembered for having an affair with the Archduchess Maria Christina.

16-year-old Isabella of Parma as painted by Jean-Marc Nattier in 1757 (x).

Isabella Maria Luisa Antonietta Ferdinanda Giuseppina Saveria Dominica Giovanna (*gasp*) was born on December 31, 1741 in Madrid, Spain at the Buen Retiro Palace. Her father was Prince Phillip of Spain and her mother was Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV. Élisabeth’s marriage had been arranged when she was very young and she was only 14-years-old when she gave birth to Isabella. Undeniably due in part to her mother’s young age, Isabella’s parents did not have a happy marriage and her childhood was riddled with family drama. She was estranged from her father and grew up very close to her mother, which only ended in grief when Élisabeth died of smallpox in 1759. The tragedy of her mother’s death convinced Isabella for many years that she too was cursed to die a young death.

In 1760, she was married off to Archduke Joseph of Austria, the eventual king of the Habsburg Monarchy (and also the older brother of fellow lesbian icon Marie Antoinette). Isabella was only 18 at the time of their marriage and despite Joseph affectionately welcoming her to her new home in Austria, she isolated herself in the palace and is believed to have been plagued by depression for much of her married life. It was her sister-in-law, Joseph’s sister Archduchess Maria Christina, who Isabella truly felt romantic feelings for rather than her husband.

Mimi, as Maria was nicknamed, was the one of the few people of the Viennese court who Isabella spent time with and allowed into her personal chambers. While they were at court together, they exchanged over 200 letters and were nicknamed Orpheus and Eurydice in reference to the romantic Greek myth. In two separate letters to Mimi, Isabella writes: 

“I can think of nothing but that I am deeply in love. If I only knew why this is so, for you are so without mercy that one should not love you, but I cannot help myself,” and 

“I am told that the day begins with God. I, however, begin the day by thinking of the object of my love, for I think of her incessantly.” 

Sadly, the two women’s affair was ended once Mimi was shipped off to Hungary to be married. Only Isabella’s letters to Mimi were preserved, as Mimi’s to Isabella were destroyed after her death.

With her lover gone and the Habsburg monarchy eagerly awaiting a new heir, Isabella was forced to confront her royal duty. Despite feeling little to no affection for her husband and being plagued by anxiety over sex with him, Isabella was able to give birth to a daughter on March 20, 1762. She would go on to have three more pregnancies, but her first daughter was the only one to survive infancy. Isabella’s health declined rapidly after her third miscarriage; she would pass away only a week after her infant daughter on November 27, 1763.

-LC

[365daysoflesbians]

DECEMBER 30: Amanda Nunes defends her title as the very first lesbian UFC champion (2016)

On July 10, 2016, Amanda Nunes became the very first openly gay UFC fighter to win a major title. She made history once again on December 30, 2016 when she defeated the legendary Ronda Rousey and became the very first openly gay returning champion in UFC history. 

Amanda Nunes celebrates her historic win over Ronda Rousey on December 30, 2016. Despite Rousey’s bombastic reputation, she was defeated by Nunes in a devastating 48-second loss (x).

Amanda Nunes was born on May 30, 1988 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She began karate lessons at only age 4 and when she as 16, she advanced to boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. After travelling to America to pursue a professional mixed martial arts career, Amanda made her debut at Prime MMA Championship on March 8, 2008.

On July 10, 2016, Amanda became the first openly gay UFC fighter to ever win a major title when she defeated Miesha Thomas. On December 30, 2016, she competed in a second career-defining match against the famous fighter Ronda Rousey. By winning the match, she secured her place in history as the first openly gay or lesbian UFC fighter to not only win but also defend her major title. 

Amanda shares a kiss with her girlfriend after her big win (x).

She attributes her success in the ring to her girlfriend, fellow UFC fighter and training partner, Nina Ansaroff. Amanda is quoted as saying, “She is going to be the next UFC champion, I mean it…She is going to show everybody. She helps me every day … and I love her.”

-LC

[365daysoflesbians]

DECEMBER 29: Elsa Gidlow (1898-1986)

One of the most famous lesbian poets of all time, Elsa Gidlow, was born on this day in 1898. Her 1923 collection titled A Grey Thread was the first instance of openly lesbian love poetry to be published in North America.

Elsa Gidlow photographed in 1925 at age 27 (x).

Elsa Gidlow was born on December 29, 1898 in Hull, Yorkshire, England. When she was only 6-years-old, the Gidlow family emigrated to Canada and settled down in Tétreaultville, Quebec. When she was 15, they would move once again to Montreal. Elsa’s very first contact with the literary world occurred when a friend of her father’s hired her to work as an assistant editor to his magazine Factory Facts.

In 1917, she began seeking out fellow gay and lesbian writers to collaborate with. Along with the journalist Roswell George Mills, she eventually published Les Mouches Fantastiques, which was the first magazine to be published in North America that openly discussed LGBT issues. Elsa being relatively unknown at the time, the magazine only came into the mainstream when the famous author H.P. Lovecraft publicly attacked its contents. Despite the backlash, Elsa would eventually publish 13 books of lesbian love poetry throughout her career. 

An original copy of Elsa’s 1923 collection of poetry, On a Grey Thread, is preserved in the collection of San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society (x).

Elsa’s partner was a woman named Isabel Grenfell Quallo. The two originally lived in San Francisco together before moving to Mount Tamalpais, California and starting a ranch they called Druid Heights. The ranch became a meeting grounds for many famous artists and activists throughout the years and Elsa is known to have entertained the likes of Neil Young, Margo St. James, Alan Ginsberg, Maya Angelou, and many more. In 1977, she was featured in the PBS documentary Word Is Out: Stores of Some of Our Lives, which chronicled the stories of LGBT people living in America. In 1986, Elsa made history once again when her autobiography, Elsa, I Come with My Songs, was published and became the very first lesbian autobiography to not be written under pseudonym.

In the last years of her life, Elsa suffered a series of strokes. She refused to seek medical care and died at home in Druid Heights on June 8, 1986. According to her will, her ashes were mixed with rice and buried underneath an apple tree. The Gidlow Estate posthumously donated Elsa’s personal papers to the San Francisco GLBT Historical Society in 1991.

-LC

[365daysoflesbians]

DECEMBER 27: Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)

The famed actress and fashion icon, Marlene Dietrich, was born on this day in 1901. Remembered as the woman who made the tuxedo gender neutral, she also had several relationships with women throughout her life.

Marlene Dietrich dressed in her classic tuxedo and top hat, cigarette in hand (x).

Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901 in a district of Berlin, Germany called Schöneberg. Her mother was from a prestigious German family and was heir to a jewelry and clock-making firm while her father served as a local police lieutenant. As a child she attended Auguste-Viktoria Girls' School. It was during her school days when her friends began calling her “Lena.” She soon combined that nickname with her first name, Marie, and began going by Marlene. After graduating from the Victoria-Luise-Schule, she began seeking a career in show business.

Her earliest gig was as a chorus girl with the touring vaudeville troupe, Guido Thielscher's Girl-Kabarett. After working in the theater circuit for a while, she made her film debut with a small role in 1923’s The Little Napoleon. Her big break came in 1930 when she starred in The Blue Angel; her role as the seductive cabaret singer Lola Lola struck something within American audiences. Her signature song from the film, “Falling in Love Again,” also became a hit. Marlene would go on to make over 45 films in her career and become known as one of the most famous femme fatales in cinema history.

One of Marlene’s most famous scenes occurred in the 1930 film Morocco. One again cast as a cabaret singer, she performs an entire song dressed in a man’s white tuxedo and kisses a woman in the audience. The scene was scandalous at the time, but also indicative of Marlene’s personal breaking of traditional gender roles; she was known to dress in men’s suits in her daily life and was also one of the first women to be enrolled at Sabri Mahir’s boxing studio in Berlin. 

Photographs of Marlene that were taken by the woman she had one of her longest love affairs with, Mercedes de Acosta (x).

The phrase “sewing circle,” used to describe the underground gang of lesbian and bisexual women in old Hollywood, is said to have been coined by Marlene herself. Although she was married to Rudolf Sieber, she had multiple affairs with both men and women. Some of her most notable lovers included Mercedes de Acosta, Claudette Colbert, Edith Piaf, and many more. She would pass away, aged 90, on May 6, 1992.

-LC