Jeanne Cordova and Lily Burana from Dagger: On Butch Women, edited by Lily Burana, Roxxie, and Linnea Due, Cleis Press, 1994
[Jeanne: Until butches and queens are safe on the streets, the movement really hasnβt done what its core is all about. When I was in activism, I would be passed over to go on television because I was butch, and our movement participates in this butch-phobia. Itβs sort of a strange homophobia. It always comes back to fuck us in the end.
Lily: Why is that?
Jeanne: Because thatβs not who we are! This whole assimilationist thing that says,Β βWeβre really just like you except for what we do in bedββ thatβs garbage. The opposite is true, I think. Itβs only in bed that we do the same things as straights. The rest of what we do is totally differentβ how we think, how we feel, how we walk, how we relate to each other, our culture. Until butches and queens are accepted, then society has not changed about gender roles. When they look at you, and itβs so important for them to decide if youβre male or female that they canβt even enjoy their pancakesβ¦
Lily: Well, then, itβs not about how you have sex, itβs about gender.
Jeanne: I think so.
Lily: Why not the sex? Why the gender?
Jeanne:Β Itβs so firm to the straights. Itβs like the sun rising in the east and going down in the west. Itβs an archetype that we threaten. When we go on TV, we should put on the meanest-looking butches and the nelliest men. Then weβd get some progress, which brings me to why I think this new queer movement is so critical. I know a lot of people donβt understand that the queer politic goes beyond feminism and cuts to the chase. While I still think itβs important to say that a lesbian identity is very different from a gay male identity, I think the queer movement is the most important ting thatβs happened since AIDS or since feminism.]
