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Logo of Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

SLFA HERSTORY PROJECT MISSION:
We are collecting, archiving, and celebrating oral and written stories of unsung, Southern, lesbian-feminist activists during the second half of the twentieth century.

SLFAHP IN THE NEWS

October 10 & 11, 2025

Merril Mushroom, our Herstory Project original instigator, author and playwright, has one of her plays, Bar Dykes, set to be performed at the Dark Horse Theater in Nashville, Friday, October 10, for evening performance;
and Saturday, October 11, for the matinee and evening performances.
You won't want to miss this.

Merril Mushroom wrote this play, Bar Dykes, in the 1980s. It has been performed several times, including off-off Broadway in 2019.
Womonwriters performed a shortened version called “Courting Rituals” at the Womonwrites conference in 1985; and they performed it again in 1987.

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NEW: See our drop-down menu on the Home page under the Showcase tab. We added a new page there:
Remembering Lesbians: She Who Will Be Remembered

NOTE:
If you would like to write a remembrance, use our Contact form: Contact SLFAHP.

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We have been collecting and preserving a variety of stories, interviews, photos, recordings, and other artifacts of lesbian-feminist activism in the South from approximately 1960 to the turn of the century. 

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Spotlight

Joan P. Garner: Fostering Social Change

Joan Garner
Joan Garner

Joan Garner, a Black, lesbian-feminist, social justice activist who lived in Atlanta, Georgia, was the first African American woman to be elected county commissioner for Fulton County, Georgia. She was also the first commissioner who was openly gay. She held that office for three successive terms. She served on the Lambda Legal national board from 1996 to 1998. A longtime member of Liberty Circle, Joan was a founding member of SONG (Southerners On New Ground), a multiracial group of lesbians focusing on the interconnections of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.

Joan grew up in Washington D.C., at the height of the civil rights movement. When she was in eleventh grade, while attending a high school sorority conference, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. This event had a profound effect on Joan, resulting in her lifelong commitment to work for her people and for social justice.

She came out as a lesbian in the early 1980s; and by the end of that decade, she became involved with the lesbian and gay movement as a social justice activist. During the AIDS epidemic, she worked with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in Atlanta. When the HRC planned the first fund-raising dinner, Joan became comfortable with her identity as an out, proud, African American lesbian. Later, she worked on Maynard Jackson’s campaign. Jackson became Atlanta's first Black mayor, and he appointed her to a number of boards and commissions.

Working with the Fund for Southern Communities, Joan met lesbians who taught her about feminist theory. While she considered herself feminist, she never identified with the white feminist movement.

Joan Garner died of breast cancer in 2017, gone way too soon. 

Read more.

Watch the interview with Leaf and Drea on YouTube.

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The Lesbian Pride flag, also known as the Amazon Pride flag, used since the second half of the twentieth century, continues to be used today.
This flag is in the public domain.

Featured Video:

"We're Not Just Whistling Dixie: Southern Lesbian Feminists"

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Each of the interviews and articles archived on this website belongs to one or more of the following categories:
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