Jenny Yates

Jenny Yates was born in 1951, in North Carolina. She spent her childhood overseas in Germany, Vietnam, and Thailand. Her dad was a linguist, and her mom taught English. In Bangkok, Jenny started writing poems and stories, encouraged by her favorite teacher, Mrs. Vanit.

Jenny Yates spent her teenage years in the Washington, DC area. She and her brother reacted to the shock of “United States” culture in different ways. Her brother became a revolutionary, and he went to Cuba. Jenny became a hippie, and she went to Woodstock. Jenny kept writing, and she began investigating astrology. Painting, drawing, and photography were her main interests. She attended the Academy of Art in San Francisco. After she dropped out of the academy, she went east again, moving in with a boyfriend on a defunct farm. She immediately got pregnant.

During these “respectable” years, Jenny raised her son as a solo parent, worked for the post office as a clerk, and bought a little house in the suburbs of northern Virginia. Then, she happened into a group of lesbians, got crushes on a half-dozen of them, and eventually, came out as a lesbian herself. After a few short but interesting love affairs, she fell in love with a Venezuelan woman, Marie Vivas. They got married, not legally, of course, since this was in 1988 [before legalization of same-sex marriage]. They hatched a fantasy of living on the beach in Venezuela, with Jenny working as an astrologer, which actually came true.

Jenny Yates and Marie Vivas lived in Caraballeda, Venezuela, not far from Caracas, for nine years. Every summer, Jenny came back to the U.S., travelling up and down the east coast, doing workshops on astrology at womyn’s festivals. When Marie was ready to change jobs, Jenny and Marie moved to Quito, Ecuador, where Jenny wrote Quito Murder Mystery, a light-hearted mystery set in an international school, featuring a college counselor and an astrologer. After nine years there, they moved again, this time to Bremen, Germany, where they enjoyed their first legal partnership, since same-sex unions were legal by then in Germany.

Ten years ago, Jenny Yates and Marie Vivas moved back to the U. S., where they could keep an eye on Jenny’s dad; and give homes to Marie’s mom and grandma. Jenny and Marie got married for the third time in Rockville, Maryland, this time, legally in the U.S. Jenny continues writing astrological interpretations and a monthly column on the subject. She is working on her second novel.

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