Sappho Was a Right-On Woman

1972, 1978 Day Books edition
Sidney Abbott & Barbara Love
Sappho Was a Right-On Woman: A Liberated View of Lesbianism
Original price unknown, purchase price $1.50
Very worn paperback
B-

Very much a product of this time, this offers an early look at Lesbian (always capitalized by the authors) life in an era of Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation.  Although sexism in the latter movement gets some attention, much more of the book addresses the homophobia of Betty Friedan and others, although Lesbians gained allies that included straight feminists Caroline Bird and Susan Brownmiller.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see that George McGovern offered his support of gay rights, I think the first mainstream presidential candidate to do so.  Kate Millett's harsh treatment by Time because of her bisexuality is discussed in particular.  (But what idiot left the final T off her name on the back cover quote?  Tsk, tsk, Day Books.)

This book was published three years after Stonewall, and the two parts, called "What It Was Like" and "Living the Future," deliberately play up the transition from a time when if a Lesbian was lucky she could at best meet her peers in a Mafia-run gay bar (not an option to rural, suburban, or closeted women), compared to the founding of all sorts of social and/or political groups for queer women. 

The authors are relatively accepting of bisexual women, and even say that they wish that bi women would offer their perspectives more often.  There were then no out bi women in N.O.W. for instance.  Biphobia existed from both sides, as it does today.  Trans issues don't come up at all, an omission that's perhaps understandable but makes the book more dated, particularly in its discussion of Lesbian challenges to sex-stereotyping.

I think in the discussion of reasons why some Lesbians remain closeted, the book is least dated.  There is definitely more acceptance four decades later-- from society, family, friends, coworkers and employers, and selves-- but obviously homophobia is still a legitimate threat.  When the authors say that Lesbians are seldom the victims of violence, are they naïve or was gay-bashing of women as well as men less wide-spread than now?  Perhaps such crimes were less frequently reported, or the sexuality of the victims was not mentioned.