A place of our own Six spaces that shaped queer women's culture

Journalist and longtime Slate editor Thomas' first book is a socio-historical record of spaces culturally important to queer women in the U.S. from the mid-twentieth century to today. Specifically, Thomas presents long and nuanced chapters on lesbian bars, feminist bookstores, the softball diamond, lesbian land, feminist sex-toy stores, and vacation destinations. A growing genre of books explores lesbian-feminist history and space; thank Sappho that Thomas decided to contribute. Her work does two invaluable things. First, it preserves detailed history. Thomas researched archives and libraries while conducting extensive interviews to consider these spaces, not generically but specifically, recording names, dates, places, transitions, changes, lawsuits, reorganizations, and actual people. Second, A Place of Our Own offers big-picture observations about the ethics of these spaces and what makes them each unique and distinct (from other spaces and each other). Thomas argues, for example, that while feminist bookstores may not appear successful if evaluated by capitalist standards, they are wildly so if evaluated by their own goals of impacting lives. Thomas also argues that trans-exclusionary spaces are getting it wrong and should change. Thomas' readable, interesting, and detailed book will be invaluable to lesbians, queer people, and all readers interested in American culture.

An in-depth look at spaces essential to lesbian culture and community. Mythically, metaphorically, and all too often physically, lesbians are "a people without a home," writes Thomas, co-host of Slate's Working podcast. As the author shows, queer women have been exiled and shunned by families, colleagues, and society at large--even, to some degree, by the feminist and gay rights communities and movements of the second half of the 20th century. Therefore, they have been forced to build and co-opt their own places: lesbian bars and bookstores, softball and other sports leagues, adult toy stores, rural communes, and vacation destinations. As Thomas profiles these spaces, their founders, and their loyal visitors, clients, and participants, she brings not only her personal experience, but also decades of reporting and commentary on the needs, initiatives, and leaders of the LGBTQ+ community. The author enriches telling anecdotes gleaned from interviews during her career with thoughtful research into how safety, capitalism, and access to credit influenced the distinct shapes of lesbian spaces growing out of, dovetailing with, and contrasting with other movements of social progress, liberation, and separatism. The history she captures, while told with clear personal fondness and respect, is neither overly romanticized nor nostalgic. Though Thomas found her own community and livelihood embedded within spaces that cater to the LGBTQ+ community, her journalistic sensibility tempers her memories and admiration with a critical awareness of how even lesbian spaces can draw exclusionary race and gender lines. As culture shifts away from the outlines of physical space, Thomas insists on its relevance, granting context and gravitas to the personal freedom and shared history she explores, establishing a legacy of meeting lesbians' needs and desires that future generations and movements can draw on and expand. An engaging and informative study that defies attempts to erase people or their places. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.