Back to the land of exclusion: a history of lesbian separatism, community, and trans marginalization in the United States, 1970s-2020s

Abstract

Modern feminist and queer scholars often dismiss lesbian separatism as an antiquated,essentialist practice that serves little purpose for feminists today. Due to the exclusionary nature of the movement, it is easy to understand why. Many individuals and organizations associated with lesbian separatism display anti-queer and anti-trans identity tendencies that receive justified criticism from today’s inclusionary perspectives. However, lesbian separatist and feminist communities were prolific in the 1970s and 80s, and they provided crucial space for self- discovery and consciousness-raising. Not only were lesbians creating collectively owned urban businesses, such as coffee shops, bookstores, and record labels, but they also represented a contingent of the back-to-the-land movement, attempting to create rural utopias in places like northwest Arkansas. Those who have written about lesbian separatism often have ties to the movement itself, and they rarely dedicate much analysis to the issues of gender identity within these spaces. Additionally, the scholarly work analyzing this movement does not often extend its analysis beyond the 1980s. Although lesbian separatism was arguably at its height in the 1970s and early 1980s, many organizations and ideologies associated with the movement remained prevalent in the 1990s and 2000s. This period is when we begin to see an increase in discourse about transgender individuals’ roles within the movement. Much of the criticism aimed at lesbian separatists comes from internet users in the form of blogs or social media posts. While some article-length essays that analyze trans-exclusionary practices within lesbian organizations have been written, this thesis will bridge the gap between the scholarly work of authors like Dana R. Shugar, Bonnie J. Morris, and others who have documented the history of lesbian separatism with the more recent developments and critiques of the movement. My work argues that while separatism provided crucial space for lesbian women to better understand their identities and escape societal pressures, issues of race, class, and gender identity caused conflict in many separatist communities that ultimately led to their diminishment in size and scope.