But Why *These* Queer Historians?
A dear bi-queer-cis friend who married a queer cis guys who is listening to my Our Dyke Histories podcast is loving the episodes, she says, and learning so much about lezbiqueertrans history she didn't know but needed to know. She also asked,
"Why did you interview these people for Our Dyke Histories? Like why put them in conversation? Like, *why these queer historians*?"
Great question! Why these queer historians, indeed. Yes, let me tell you why! The reason behind this entire podcast / newsletter is actually both so exciting and *such* a good story.
Just over two years ago, I landed on a set of stools at a proximate-to-our-conference restaurant with the absolutely wonderful Julie Enszer, Director of Sinister Wisdom. I couldn't wait to pitch her my idea.
"So. I was thinking about how awesome the online book launch / discussion over Mairead Sullivan's *Lesbian Death* was. I want to pitch you / Sinister Wisdom the idea of a decade-by decade webinar series on dyke bars*, lesbian bars, queer parties, and trans hangouts. Because most queer historians write some to a little on dyke bars*, but no one has ever put them in conversation. What if I did that in collab with y'all?"
"Oh yeah?,"she replied. We were we eating fries with cheese on them? Nachos? She nodded and said, "Hrm. That's interesting. Let me think on it. AND! Did you hear that..." And Julie and I went back to chatting ideas and the people who make them, as academics too.
Many months later, Julie set us a meeting and immediately said, "Listen. Okay. So. It's so much work and the idea is great. But how about you do a podcast instead and–?"
"Hell, yes," I said, without even having to think on it.
Mairead's book launch was so special and intimate, even on Zoom. The ability to just jam with my friendcolleagues was life giving. It included the likes of Rachel Corbman (my friend who is the literal walking brain history of most of dyke history), Olivia Polk (who was then still working on her dissertation at Yale but was already such an incredible Black/queer/feminist theorist guru), Ann Cvetkovich (who is already a known theorist guru), and the kween of lesbian everything and co-founder of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, Joan Nestle herself.
Click here to witness just the Zoom dyke dance party we held after the chat.
Being in a great conversation with people who think a lot about the same or a smilar thing is a rush. It's not like the academy pays well. But it does allow you to often be around folks you can just jam with.
I can also visually translate this feeling. It felt like this:
I wanted that, that feeling, but not just for me. For everydyke.
So! Absolutely and completely flipping naive about the fun and also very real time, labor, money, and energy I was about to devote in building Our Dyke Histories, as well as the community I'd build in the work on it and from it, I jumped in to interviews in 2024. It took the better part of three months to learn how to sound edit, and my team and I are still working on it.
As for launching Queer Geographies, the reasoning was tightly bound and was first suggested by Julie (again) (and, again, thank you, friend) when I said, "I just have so much more to say." And she replied with an honest, flat tone I adore her for, and I paraphrase: "Well, no one can listen to more than this already. Why don't you start a newsletter?" I remember laughing and admitting, "Yes, that feels so right." There are other reasons but we'll get to those another day.
As for why I picked "these queer historians" (hee, what a phrase!), each of my ODH guests is so incredibly cool and brilliant that they deserve their own post series so that you can get to know them too. There's so much to what they wrote that I'll never fit into the book I'm writing on the history of dyke bars*, so I'll hand over all the juicy stories, guest and guest pairing. Yum.
As for all that time, strength, and patience to do this work, you may wonder, is it worth it? Same answer today as then: hell, yes.
