News and Press
Photo Credit: Kaucyila Brooke (formerly known as Shady Grove)
Photo Credit: Kaucyila Brooke (formerly known as Shady Grove)
News
Outliers and Outlaws Exhibit Opens at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History
The UO Museum of Cultural and Natural History collaborated with Eugene Lesbian History Project creators and narrators to build and install the exhibit “Outliers and Outlaws: Stories from the Eugene Lesbian History Project.” The exhibit runs from January 2023 – February 2023.
Special events and a storytelling series are offered throughout the exhibition’s run. See the museum’s event calendar for details.
“Thirty Years After No on 9” Panel Discussion at the Oregon Historical Society
The Eugene Lesbian History Project and the Oregon Historical Society offered a public program on the history of Measure 9, a 1992 anti-LGBTQ ballot measure, and its legacies — personal, legal, and political.
The October 11, 2022 program included a brief introduction to the history of Measure 9, a viewing of short composite videos from the history project, and a panel discussion among those who participated in the campaign against Measure 9 and youth who have been learning that history and engaging in more-recent campaigns for civil rights, moderated by Project Director Judith Raiskin.
Outliers and Outlaws Featured in “16 Stories of Feminist Activism”
The Outliers and Outlaws project was featured in the 2021 edition of “16 Stories of Feminist Activism,” an annual campaign honoring stories about activism-related subjects in a variety of mediums. Hosted by the National Women’s Studies Association and co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the Graduate Center CUNY, and the journals Feminist Anthropology and Women Studies Quarterly, the campaign culminated in a webinar where representatives of the chosen stories presented their work and engaged in conversation with participants and guests.
Read about the 16 Stories here.
Oregon Cultural Trust Supports Outliers and Outlaws
The Oregon Cultural Trust awarded two grants totaling $57,737 to the Eugene Lesbian History Project to support the creation of the project’s digital exhibit and documentary film.
For more than two decades, the Oregon Cultural Trust has played a vital role in enriching our state’s cultural resources, supporting more than 1,600 nonprofits across Oregon. The Cultural Trust empowers Oregonians to leverage their support for
arts, heritage and humanities nonprofits with the Cultural Tax Credit.
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Press
The Eugene Lesbian History Project Celebrates ‘Outliers and Outlaws’ of Oregon – Oregon Live
October 18, 2023 by Kristi Turnquist
At a time when the Department of Homeland Security has reported that attacks and threats against members of the LGBTQ community are on the rise, the existence of “Outliers and Outlaws: The Eugene Lesbian History Project,” seems all too timely.
The project, which includes a digital exhibit, videos, oral history interviews, an exhibit at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History and an in-the-works documentary, is intended to document the experiences and thoughts of people who were in Eugene during the decades when it had a reputation as a “lesbian mecca.”
Eugene attracted lesbians who were part of “the counterculture westward migration, identified as feminists, and had been involved in anti-war and civil rights protests,” the digital exhibit says. “Oregon’s reputation as a rural, forested state with cheap housing was a draw for those looking for communal living and collective work.”
Eugene attracted lesbians who were part of “the counterculture westward migration, identified as feminists, and had been involved in anti-war and civil rights protests,” the digital exhibit says. “Oregon’s reputation as a rural, forested state with cheap housing was a draw for those looking for communal living and collective work.”
The project directors are Judith Raiskin, University of Oregon associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and Linda Long, University of Oregon curator of manuscripts.
“These women were born before the women’s movement and grew up in a time when women did not have access to many social and economic opportunities. They grew up before Title IX, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, etc. Most of them left home in the late ‘60s during a time of great social change but in daily life sexism, racism, and homophobia remained strong.”
The women Raiskin and Long interviewed “wondered who they could be, what they could do, if they could get out from under the yoke of patriarchy, misogyny and homophobia,” Raiskin wrote. “How could they lead their most free life and fulfill their human potential?”
Lessons from Eugene’s Elder Lesbians – Oregon Family Magazine
June 1, 2023 by Becky Raines
Rainbow Rascals. Lesbian Moms ‘n’ Other People. Cute names for something essential: parenting support. In the early days of Covid-19, many of us experienced profound isolation. Many parents were suddenly without childcare and away from the support their families and friends provided. We didn’t know how to gather safely or how to weigh the risks and rewards of playdates or meeting with our parenting groups.
The elder lesbian parenting community of Eugene were familiar with this uncertainty. Many of them were new mothers in the 1980s and 90s, part of a national “gayby” boom as openly gay parents began to raise kids. Even in progressive Eugene, openly queer adults faced interactions that ranged from ignorant to threatening.
Documentary film about the history and impact of lesbians in Eugene nears completion – KLCC
September 13, 2023 by Jill Burke
The documentary “Outliers and Outlaws” tells the story of lesbians in Eugene: Why they came. What they did. A showing of the nearly-finished film takes place this week at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
In the film, nine women, now in their 70s and 80s, tell their own stories. They opened businesses, created families, spearheaded community organizations and fought for civil rights.
Courtney Hermann, the film’s director, said what the women went through during the civil rights movements of the 1960s and beyond matters. Amid struggles and discrimination, they found success and created change.
Hermann said it’s through their stories that others can access what she calls “courage through association,” guidance based on lived experience, that still applies decades later. Wisdom and will, that younger generations can carry forward.
“Hearing stories of people who carved out a space where they could have a life and, and a robust one, and where they could express themselves and be who they were, and fight for the rights that they that they earned, I think is a really great model for for folks now,” Hermann said.
Bridging the Gap: Stories of Eugene Queer Life Across Generations – Oregon Public Broadcasting
June 24, 2023 by Lillian Karabaic
From the 1960s through the 1990s, lesbians from across the US made pilgrimages to Eugene, Oregon, many in Volkswagen buses. In fact, so many lesbians made their way to Eugene and began building lesbian collective businesses and group houses that it became known as the lesbian mecca.
Enid Lefton was one of those people, and her story is preserved in The Eugene Lesbian Oral History Project, an oral history collection of more than 80 stories from the heyday of Eugene’s lesbian community.
New Exhibit at UO Highlights the History of Eugene’s Lesbian Community – Oregon Public Broadcasting
February 28, 2023 by Gemma DiCarlo
“The lesbian community, as far as I was concerned, ran the town.”
That’s a quote from Judy Goldstein’s oral history interview with the Eugene Lesbian History Project. The project uses first-person testimonies from Goldstein and more than 80 other volunteers to document the city’s lesbian community from roughly the 1960s to the 1990s. It’s also on display in a new exhibit at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Goldstein and project director Judith Raiskin join us to talk about the history of Eugene’s lesbian community and why it’s important to document these stories now.
Outliers and Outlaws: Firsthand Accounts Inspire a New Exhibit About Eugene’s Lesbian Community From a Generation Ago – Eugene Weekly
February 9, 2023
Full Moon Rising was an all-lesbian crew of the Hoedads, a Eugene-based tree planting cooperative that began in the 1970s. Hoedads had different crews, and each one had its own theme.
Full Moon Rising’s theme was empowerment for women. It contracted with the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies to replant trees in clearcut harvested areas, and everyone got paid the same — no matter how many trees they planted.
Planting was done in winter, but strenuous labor would cause the crew to become overheated, in which case many of the women did what men sometimes do — they took off their shirts while working. This during a time when just sporting a crew cut was seen as unacceptable behavior for women in mainstream culture.
The Eugene Lesbian History Project Celebrates ‘Outliers and Outlaws’ of Oregon – The Register-Guard
January 28, 2023 by Miranda Cyr
Through a new exhibit in the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon, visitors can explore the rich and detailed history of the lesbian community in Eugene and the state of Oregon.
Eugene is known to be a hub for LGBTQ activism and inclusion, especially for lesbians.
Over the past four years, UO associate professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Judith Raiskin and UO curator of manuscripts Linda Long collected images, symbols and stories on this history, speaking with 83 lesbians about their experiences living in Eugene.
Hundreds of hours of oral history have been consolidated into the exhibit Outliers & Outlaws: Stories from the Eugene Lesbian History Project. It will be open through the end of 2023 at the museum, 1680 E. 15th Ave.
Historians Document Oregon’s Unique Lesbian Mecca – KGW TV
June 28, 2022 by Galen Ettlin
OREGON, USA — A new living history archive is now online to show a unique slice of Oregon life.
The “Outliers and Outlaws” project showcases communities of lesbians who made Eugene and southern Oregon home in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
“Eugene was considered a lesbian mecca,” said Judith Raiskin, a professor at University of Oregon.
‘Eugene Lesbian History Project’ preserves city history – Daily Emerald
May 21, 2021
From the 1960s through the 1990s, hundreds of young lesbian women migrated to Eugene, which was known as “Lesbian Mecca.” They worked in businesses traditionally considered to be for men, led community service agencies and held government positions. In addition, these women created a unique culture of music, theater and arts in Eugene. However, much of this lesbian history wasn’t recorded — two UO faculty members decided to change that.
During the summers of 2018 and 2019, Professor Judith Raiskin of the UO Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Linda Long, Curator of Manuscripts in the UO Libraries, set out to record this history. The Eugene Lesbian History Project was born. Raiskin and Long have known each other for decades and both coincidentally ended up in Eugene.
Lesbian Oral History Project to become part of UO collections – Around the O
September 10, 2018 by tova stabin
The history of Eugene’s lesbian community from the 1960s through the 1990s will be kept alive through video interviews and archival documents of more than 140 women taking part in the UO’s Lesbian Oral History project.
Judith Raiskin, associate professor in the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Linda Long, curator of manuscripts in Special Collections and University Archives in UO Libraries, are conducting the project as part of the library’s effort to preserve Oregon history.
Raiskin and Long see the project as an integral part of history that needs to be recorded or it will disappear. In a letter explaining the project, they wrote, “These stories will illustrate how this community reflected, reacted to, and transformed the broader American cultural and social history.”
New History for Future Generations Lesbian Oral History documents gay women in Eugene – Eugene Weekly
August 9, 2018 written by Michael Tobin and photographed by Todd Cooper
In the basement of the Knight Library at the University of Oregon, the knowledge and history of Eugene’s lesbian community is being retold and archived for generations to come.
Linda Long and Judith Raiskin coordinate the Lesbian Oral History Project at the UO, which seeks to document the history of lesbians who lived in Eugene from the ’60s to early ’90s. The two friends make a dynamic duo. Long brings her skills as a manuscripts librarian, and Raiskin brings her knowledge as a women’s, gender and sexuality professor.
Both realized the importance of documenting the history of the lesbian community, and Long thought it would be “great to capture their stories about what being in the lesbian community meant.”
Other Media
Reviews in Digital Humanities
March 27, 2023
Reviews in Digital Humanities, offering peer review of digital scholarship, reviewed the Outliers and Outlaws digital exhibit in the Vol. 4, No. 3 edition of the publication.
Download a pdf of the review
2021 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award Video
April 16, 2021
The Oregon Heritage Commission awarded an Oregon Heritage Excellence Award to The Eugene Lesbian History Project. Oregon State Parks created videos and hosted videos on their YouTube channel to introduce the public to the winning projects.
Jokes Seth Can’t Tell: National Be Late for Something Day, Lesbian Oral History Project – Late Night with Seth Meyers
September 18, 2018
The Lesbian Oral History Project was included in a set of jokes on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Advance to 4:25 for the joke!