Note: a version of this review is being aired this week on the international LGBTQ radio syndicate This Way Out, headquartered in Los Angeles. To listen to the entire news wrap, click here.
Before being a lesbian was trendy, before marriage equality, before we were part of the LGBT movement, lesbians were simply women – labeled “sick” and “deviant” – who somehow found a way to live in an extremely oppressive environment.
Of course, those were the old days – when almost everyone was oppressed.
Fast forward half a century, at least. Things have changed so much. I am guilty of being 
one of the lesbians who think that society has moved on. Well, it should have at least.
But hate crimes are up – including hate crimes against those of us in the LGBT community.
And as The Advocate reports in its most recent issue, “Hate crimes (against those in the Progress doesn’t always move in a straight line. I was reminded of this when I read Olympus Nights On the Square, LGBT Life in the Early Post-War Years (1945-1955) (2017, Sans Merci Press) by Vanda. I read and reviewed the first volume of this series last year (Juliana (vol 1: 1941 – 1944) which gave me the back story – and while the first book, too, is an interesting page turner about lesbian history, it is not necessary to read the first book in order to understand the most recent book.
In Olympus Nights On The Square we meet Al short for Alice, a lesbian – although she was in denial for a long time – from a small town who moved to New York City and now works in the entertainment industry. Vanda is also a playwright and dialogue drives her novels – making for interesting and engaging writing. In the 1950s – during the time of the McCarthy witch hunts where homosexuality was often synonymous with communist – her characters reflect on the fact that things are harder for them than during the 1940s when they first met.
The novel gives us a panoramic view of the times seen through the eyes of her characters.
I found it all very fascinating.
I did at one point, however, find the oppressive tenor of the times tedious. It was the sexism that got to me. Women could not even be served in bars without a male escort.
Gay men and lesbians lived in fear of being found out as what society labeled a sick person, sexual deviant, or a pervert. But the novel chronicles the changes in society too – as when Alice first sees the word “homosexual” in print (even a negative reference is an admission that such people do exist).
As the author writes in the introduction, “Knowing this history is important for both gay and straight. It’s already starting to repeat itself.”
History is starting to repeat itself. But things have changed. For one thing, we have stepped out of the shadows and we have allies.
In her CD, Dreamland (offered by Woodstock Arts), Jennifer Maidmen, writes of “The Conspiracy of Dreamers” where you can be anything you like there.” She sings of an invisible “revolution that is dangerous and free.”
Jennifer is transgender and identifies as “two-spirit” person. She recorded this album with her long-time partner Annie Whitehead on horns and she has toured with other musicians such as Joan Armatrading and Boy George.
Her music is haunting and liberating and tells us that not only have things changed – but that we are part of the change.
There used to be a saying in the lesbian community that we are everywhere. Now things are different and most of us acknowledge that we are more alike than different. Perhaps the new saying could be that, we are everyone.
Janet Mason, author 