Portal:LGBT/Selected article/15

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Lesbian American history is the history of women who are attracted to other women, or lesbians, in the United States. This is a relatively new field of historical inquiry, but has advanced significantly since the beginning of the gay and lesbian rights movement. Primary historical resources for Lesbian American history are scant and hence this is a fledgling discipline ripe for investigation.

Longstanding denial of the very existence of lesbianism frustrates the exploration of lesbian American history. As much of early American sensibilities were fashioned by Victorian English colonization, it is no coincidence that for a great while lesbianism was denied, and fringe discussion of the very possibility of lesbianism was tabled in both legislatures and academic circles. Hence, few resources exist making more detailed study of certain eras impossible. The study of lesbian American history might thus be described as embryonic. (MORE...)