Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyNovember 11th, 2011
Barbara Grier, longtime lesbian author, editor, advocate and founder of what was once the world’s largest publisher of gay and lesbian literature, died of cancer Thursday at a hospital in Tallahassee, Florida. She was 78.
Barbara was born on November 4, 1933 in Cincinnati. She said she came out as a lesbian at twelve years old, and spent the rest of her life finding out as much about lesbians as she could. She told her mother she was homosexual, but as she later recalled, her mother replied, “No, because you’re a woman, you’re a lesbian. And since 12 years old is too young to make such a decision, let’s wait six months before we tell the newspapers.” Her book collection began when her mother gave her a copy of Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness when she turned sixteen. Barbara’s love for lesbian literature, which she called Lesbiana, would serve as the guiding force for her life’s work, not the mention the basis for her massive personal book collection.
Barbara began her career at The Ladder, the in-house newsletter for the Daughters of Bilitis, in 1957. She mostly wrote book reviews for works of fiction in which lesbians were characters, and like most gay and lesbian authors at that time, she used multiple pen names, including Gene Damon, Lennox Strong, and Vern Niven. When she took over as editor of The Ladder in 1968, she sought to broaden its appeal by dropping the word “lesbian” from the front cover and expanding coverage to include more feminist themes. At this time, the Daughters of Bilitis themselves were in conflict about the organizations direction; the founders wanted a more conservative, assimilationist approach, which conflicted with the younger, more separatist feminists. Grier was solildly in the latter camp, and when the Daughters of Bilitis folded, Grier retained the subscription lists without the knowledge of DOB’s founders, causing an uproar. The Ladder ultimately folded in 1972.
In 1973, Barbara and her partner, Donna McBride, founded Naiad Press, which mostly published Lesbian fiction. Naiad published anything from pulp fiction to poetry, mysteries and romance novels. Barbara’s goal was for lesbians in the midwest to have books to read that reflected who they were. Naiad Press launched the careers of a number of successful lesbian authors, and Naiad also drew from Barbara’s own vast collection of out-of-print works by Renée Vivien and Gertrude Stein. But Naiad became best known for publishing Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan’s groundbreaking nonfiction Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence
Barbara and Donna sold the company to Bella Books in 2003 and retired. They also donated their collection of literature to the San Francisco Public Library. It consisted of an entire tractor trailer full of 14,000 books.
Barbara and Donna married in California on September 5, 2008, during the brief period in which same-sex marriages were available. Barbara’s body was cremated, and there will be no funeral services.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Marcelle Wyzdyx
November 11th, 2011
She was a great resource for me in the olden days of 1975.
Leave A Comment