[cathexis]

Glad this thread was bumped. It's been great reading about everyone's coming out/socialization experiences and how things have changed over the years. 1974 was when I came out as a mid-teenager in Indianapolis. Remember that there were a few bars which we spent time trying to get in. We hoped no one would ID us, but truth be told none of us looked a day over 17.

We were relegated to hanging out at a Steak & Egg diner in the downtown area or hanging on the streets if the waitress found out we had no money.

Glad to runaway to Chicago where I got a fake ID, and started actually getting in clubs. The two I remember best were Augie's on Broadway (middle class, white, younger) and CK's on Diversey (decidedly working class). Backstory on these two bars was that Augie and CK were lovers who both open bars. Years later, the two bars joined together. CK's was butch/femme with a few of us hated kikis thrown in. A kiki was a lesbian who could go either way on the gender scale depending on desire or need. We weren't a defined value traveling between the binary extremes so it made many feel uncomfortable.

At that time, Chicago had another bar that I remember, Lost and Found, which mostly catered to the 40 plus crowd.

New Orleans was the next stop about mid-1976. Had a co-worker and male friend who took me to all his leather haunts. Unfortunately, there were no womyn (would have become a leatherdyke much sooner).

As for community attitudes toward lesbians, the only problem with bias I encountered was in Indy.

Got blown away the 1st year I went to Michfest when it was on the old land in the early eighties. Loads of naked dykes everywhere. Even more amazed in 1987 at the March on Washington. More dykes than I'd ever seen together in one area.