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Roberta Achtenberg, Virginia Apuzzo, John D'Emilio, Michael Denneny, Melvin Dixon, Essex Hemphill, Armistead Maupin, Joan Nestle, Sarah Schulman, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid, Edmund White OUT/LOOK FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Peter Babcock, Thorn Bean, Debra Chasnoff, Jeffrey Escoffier, Kim Klausner, Robin Kojima, Donald Pharaoh, Sandra Whisler, Karen Wickre VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1 SUMMER 1990 OUT fLOOK, National Lesbian & Gay Quarterly (lSSN 0089-7733) is published quarterly by the OUT fLOOK Foundation, 2940 16th Street, Suite 319, San Francisco, CA 94103, (415) 626-7929. Postmaster: Send address changes to OUT fLOOK, 2940 16th Street, Suite 319, San Francisco, CA 94103. Second class postage paid at San Francisco and additional mailing offices. Correspondence: OUT /LOOK welcomes letters to the editor, queries, unsolicited manuscripts, and artwork. Submissions cannot be returned unless a stamped, self-addressed envelope is included. No responsibility is assumed for loss or damage. Letters may be edited for length. Send all editorial,
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subscription correspondence to the address listed above. Subscriptions: Annual rates are $21 for individuals, $29 for libraries and institutions, and $31 internationaL Add $16 for first-class international. All rates are in US dollars. Rights: All rights reserved. Contents copyright Š 1990 by the OUT fLOOK Foundation except where otherwise noted. Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. Note: Publication of the name or photograph of any person or organization in articles, advertising, or listings in OUT /LOOK is not to be construed as an indication of that person or organization's sexual orientation (unless stated specifically). Opinions expressed in the pages of OUT fLOOK do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors, unless stated specifically.
2
EEBO BRINKER (tormented paperback dyke of the late fifties) might've come up with a few excuses to desert her station at the hotel elevator and cruise the lobby instead. She would have been awkward but persistent; her voice, after all, had not yet learned to say "lesbian" (though her creator, writer Ann Bannon, had forged a new kind of dyke heroine). Phil Andros, stud hustler and hero of Samuel Steward's early pulp novels, might have braved a workshop or two, not missing the opportunity to signal a panelist's lover to the downstairs bar. Neither character, really, could have imagined the occasion where both their authors were honored: 1,200 queer writers, readers, publishers, editors, and activists gathered together in San Francisco for OUT Write '90. Reflecting on the first national conference of lesbian and gay writers, there is a certain satisfaction in conjuring characters from pre-Stonewall fiction. No longer representing the crumbs of recognition we once had to sneak, Beebo and Phil are historical figures from a body of writing that has grown up, and well beyond the closet, to give our community a significant voice. That this voice is strongest at a time when the Jesse Helmses of the world are running amuck trying to muzzle us, a time when so many of us are ill or dying, sometimes seems like a miracle. It is, rather, the result of incredibly hard work, strong spirit, courageous activism, and many desperate survival strategies. It was apparent before any of the panelists started to speak on March 3 that this would be a powerful weekend. By 9 a.m. Saturday morning the Grand Ballroom of the Cathedral Hill Hotel was packed with an audience eager to hear keynote addresses by veteran writers Judy Grahn and Allen Ginsberg. By late Sunday afternoon 170 panelists had spoken at twenty-nine overflowing panel workshops and two plenary sessions, and everyone was exhausted but reluctant to leave. The conference covered a wide spectrum: practical topics like contracts, agents, and how to get reviewed; pre-Stonewall writing; sex writing and censorship; issues of illness; re-visioning race invisibility; writing from other cultures and borders; aesthetic concerns; political concerns; and,
Summer
1990