queeranarchism:

This week I had a lovely conversation with an older dyke who reminded me how much a lot of people have always hated TERFs and SWERFs. 

She was talking about the time in the 1970s and 1980s when she was a young radical dyke and how many of the awesome dykes in the radical scene were trans women. So I asked her if there was ever any problem with TERFs and SWERFs. She didn’t know those words so I described them. Her reply was (paraphrasing a longer conversation):

“Oh, you mean the political lesbians? That’s what we called them at the time, no one really considered them radical. They hated everyone. They hated bisexual women who dated men. They hated us leather dykes and kinky dykes because they thought we were ‘copying the patriarchy’, they hated trans women. None of us in the radical scene liked them. A lot of them later left and admitted that they were straight but were presured to identify as lesbians in that group because being a feminist to them meant cutting all ties with men. They were like a cult. They often lived together and if you didn’t walk the political line you were dead to them. Intense stuff.

”

And like, I know her memories don’t have global relevance and there have also been places where TERFs had a much more prominent impact on the local radical women’s community, but still, to hear how despised these TERFs have always been by these truly radical dykes cheered me up a lot. 

where do you meet these people? i have never really met older queer folk and it’s a little weird, most of my interactions have been online and even then..

Older queers are definitely out there on Tumblr, but certainly in lesser numbers. Places I’ve met older queers in my own city:

• at an anti-racism protest, holding rainbow flags etc
• at a WW2 memorial day, wearing a pink triangle pin
• in a lesbian history archive
• at an lgbt bookshop
• on a guided tour of the queer history of the city
• in gays bars on the less noisy, less smokey nights
• in bars run by older queer people
• in bars that used to be gay bars and housing communities that used to be queer housing groups
• at movies, theatre pieces, art pieces etc about queer history
• at

  movies, theatre pieces, art pieces etc about HIV

• in organisations for other forms of social justice, be they feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, 
• Etc, etc. 

Some of the older radical queers have ‘retired’ from activist work because they want the next generation to have the space to set their own priorities or because the period they lived through, including the AIDS epidemic, was incredibly draining and they’ve seen enough grief for ten lifetimes, or just because they prioritized their own happiness after years of activism. But these queers may show up at an event about queer history. 

Other older radical queers are still doing activism, on queer causes or other issues, but they’re doing it in spaces where they feel welcome and appreciated as queer elders and where disabilities and simple getting older stuff like having low energy or hating loud noises are considered.

Older queers are out there. But I’ve also gotta be honest: there are less old radical queers than there are young ones and that has very little to do with the myth that young radicals become old moderates. There are less older radical queers out there because a lot of the young radical queers of the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and 90s never got a chance to grow old. And if we recognize that enormous nature of that loss, we stand a lot better chance of understanding and respecting the older radical queers that are here.