Category: 2020 Winter – Women’s Space

By Sharla “Skyspirit” Shotwell While there are many groups which have rules against allowinganyone not “naturally-born female” into events such as lesbianbars, music festivals, rituals, or sacred rites, I have made progressin changing at least a few minds in this regard. In one case, a friend of my late husband’s—and now a goodfriend of mine—had…

By Miriam Katz Over the past year, I have come to identify as a genderfluid personwho uses they/them pronouns. I was assigned female at birth,but I don’t know if I ever really felt like a girl or woman. I knowthat I’m attracted to women, and I practice polyamory; however,most of my relationships, whether platonic or…

By Loraine Hutchins As a young woman in high school the Student Non-violentCoordinating Committee (SNCC) taught me about resistingracism (black and white relations) and how people can uniteinterracially in struggle around justice and identity. A basic lessonwas that we must craft our truths from separate touchstones andfind common will and common good to work for…

By Martine Mussies One of my best friends is a true activist. He stands on the barricadesfor equality, for better wages for workers, for a basic income, to solvethe climate crisis and more. I admire that enormously. Because ofmy autism, I am scared to death of large crowds of people. The onlymoments that I dare…

By Kristen G. Wednesday, September 18, 2019. I’m heading to my friend’shouse to pick her up and start our trip to the Ohio Lesbian Festival!I’m super excited because this is my first women’s festival.Even though I have been out as bisexual since my twenties, I hadonly recently plunged into the lesbian scene in the last…

By Alexandra Ash I wrote this piece while pregnant. On August 9th my wonderfulbaby Liana was born. She was a week early, so I didn’t have timeto finish this essay properly. Perhaps that is fitting as the project todiversify tech is very much a work in progress. This essay addressesonly one small part of that…

By Deanna Pistono I was around six years old when I first asked myself: why do girlswear dresses, but boys don’t? Why is it ok for me to wear pants,but not for a boy to wear a dress? Why is a boy in a dress funnyand weak, and why is a girl in pants strong?…

By Jane Barnes Colette, one of my fave bi writers, wrote a long story called“Le Toutonier,” which is French for a womb, a woman’s place(such as a gym) gynaecium—the women’s quarters, the “onlycomfortable, comforting place.” Alice, newly divorced, returnsto her sisters’ apartment in Paris, where there’s a toutonier—bywhich they mean a great big old leather…

By Ellyn Ruthstrom For me, women’s space has always meant feminist space; it’snot just having other women around. In fact, some all-femalespaces feel incredibly unsafe and uncomfortable to me, suchas the mega-hetero-normative ritual spaces like wedding orbaby showers or how about a Tupperware party? Not my ideaof women’s space. Women’s space to me is about…

By Tamsin As a non-binary individual who has been part of the BostonBisexual Women’s Network for years, I feel like I have an interestingpoint of view on “women’s space.” I will admit, partof my motivation for writing is to justify my own presence; formany months after being aware of the topic of this issue, I…