It's March, which means it's Women's History Month. I'd like to highlight Queer women who were trailblazers for women's and LGBTQ+ rights. Women like Sally Ride, Frida Kahlo, and Marsha P. Johnson are some of the most memorable LGBTQ+ women throughout history. Check out this article by Them for some profiles on LGBTQ+ women throughout history.
Because Quakers have historically stood up for the marginalized and outcast in society, I felt it fitting to highlight a group of women who made history during the AIDS crisis. These were lesbian women.
Women did die of AIDS. According to this article by Yale University, "forty percent of HIV-positive individuals and twelve percent of AIDS patients were women." However, the stigma was and continues to be that AIDS only effected gay men. We know that isn't true.
Because of the stigma that came with AIDS, people avoided men in hospitals who were suffering from the disease for fear of the unknown of how the disease was transmitted. We know now why it was so shocking that Princess Diana visited gay men in hospitals who had been diagnosed with AIDS. Women died of AIDS that had never even been diagnosed because it was believed to be a disease that only affected men.
But lesbians stood up and cared for those with AIDS when no one else would. When gay men were banned from donating blood, lesbians held blood drives and donated blood that they wanted to specifically go to AIDS patients. Lesbians stood in as nurses for these patients that doctors had turned a blind eye to.
"When doctors and scientists refused to care for HIV patients, lesbians stepped in." - Yale University
When a term for our community was being decided on, gay men were adamant that the L came first in LGBT because of their "massive part of the activism surrounding the gay community and AIDS at the time" (The Foreward).
So as we begin Women's History Month, I hope you think of the women in your life who are blazing trails today. But let's not forget the queer women throughout history who have laid a path for so many of us today and who were there for the LGBTQ+ community when so many turned away.
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