Theresa “Terri” Barry - Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Theresa “Terri” Barry, born in 1952 in Washington, D.C., grew up in southern Maryland, in a large Catholic family with six brothers. She was educated in Catholic schools. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, in 1982, with a degree in dance and choreography.

Theresa Barry moved to Washington, D.C., and soon began a more than 30-year career in journalism. She had worked for the Richmond Times Dispatch from 1972 to 1976. When she moved to Washington, D.C., she joined USA Today before it first published on September 15, 1982. From there, she went to The New York Times (1995 to 1999), and then, to Bloomberg News (1999 to 2008). Eventually, she worked for the Bureau of National Affairs, which was purchased by Bloomberg LP, where she now works as a news copy editor.

Theresa Barry came out in 1976 while a student in Richmond, Virginia. She met her then-partner, Joan Mayfield, months later. From 1977 to approximately 1980, she and Joan opened and ran Labrys Books in the living room of their Richmond home. They chose the name Labrys for the double-headed, ritual axe found in ancient Minoan depictions of the Mother Goddess. Labrys Books was sustained with the support of the organization, Richmond Lesbian Feminists (RLF). Both Theresa and Joan helped produce the RLF organization’s newsletter every month.

Theresa Barry has been a writer since her teens. In 1981, she published some of her poetry in Sinister Wisdom. She now writes fiction.

Rose Norman, “ ‘ You had to be passionate and crazy’: Feminist Booksellers in the South,” Sinister Wisdom 116, (Spring 2020): 14-38