Barbara Grier Passes On

Naiad Press, what would I have done without you in my early years?  You broadened my knowledge of lesbian life and validated my feelings.  You showed me that as a lesbian I need not be relegated to the bars and softball fields;  I could be myself.. I could ride my bike.. I could even raise rabbits!

Thank you Naiad co-founders Barbara Grier and Donna McBride for these contributions to my life and certainly to the lives of thousands of lesbians. 

Barbara Grier has passed on and as this obituary in the LA Times describes, she was a "pathbreaking publisher who challenged mainstream prejudices to make literature by and about lesbians widely available in the United States and abroad..."

I wonder, as lesbians especially in the U.S. become more mainstreamed and acceptance broadens.... and as our bookstores close and our presses stop.. and as we use the Net for information.... what of our literature? What of our community?  Do we move online and thereby include even more women?  Do we use the net to arrange gatherings in physical space?  What are the mechanisms by which we incite change?  Or do we believe change is no longer needed because we believe, in the U.S., we now have much of what we fought for?

I don't know the answers.  I know that I hope Lesbian Voices can be one path upon which we walk - together in strength.

The LA Times obituary printed this moving quote from Barbara Grier.  I will hold these words close as we embark on the future.

"I have always believed that the best thing I might leave behind is a world in which any woman, anywhere, might say to herself 'I am a lesbian' and be able to go to a nearby store or library and find a book that will say to her, 'Yes, you are a lesbian, and you are wonderful.' "

Thank you Barbara Grier.

Also see:  In Remembrance:  Barbara Grier from Lambda Literary