Fun fact: Though being gay in the 40s sucked, being gay in the military was easier, and pretty common. There were apparently, at one point in time time so many lesbians in the military that when they tried to crack down on it, the girls wrote back and said âLook I can give you the names, but youâll lose some of your best officers, and half your nurses and secretaries.â And they pretty much shut up about it unless you were especially bad at subtlety. (Source: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. A good source for gay history from 1900s onwards.)
Sergeant Phelps worked for General Eisenhower. Four decades after Eisenhower had defeated the Axis powers, Phelps recalled an extraordinary event. One day the general told her, âIâm giving you an order to ferret those lesbians out.â Weâre going to get rid of them.â
âI looked at him and then I looked at his secretary. who was standing next to me, and I said, âWell, sir, if the general pleases, sir, Iâll be happy to do this investigation for you. But you have to know that the first name on the list will be mine.â
âAnd he kind of was taken aback a bit. And then this woman standing next to me said, âSir, if the general pleases, you must be aware that Sergeant Phelpsâs name may be second, but mine will be first.â
âThen I looked at him, and I said, âSir, youâre right. Theyâre lesbians in the WAC battalion. And if the general is prepared to replace all the file clerks, all the section commanders, all of the driversâevery woman in the WAC detachmentâand there were about nine hundred and eighty something of usâthen Iâll be happy to make the list. But I think the general should be aware that among those women are the most highly decorated women in the war. There have been no cases of illegal pregnancies. There have been no cases of AWOL. There have been no cases of misconduct. And as a matter of fact, every six months since weâve been here, sir, the general has awarded us a commendation for meritorious service.â
âAnd he said, âForget the order.â
– The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America
Iâve reblogged this before but it didnât have these comments and HOLY HOT DAMN DID IT NEED THEM.
Weâre looking for an artist for the cover of a book about autistic women!
An acquaintance named Heather Stone Wodis asked me to share this. She is having a book published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Itâs her PhD thesis and itâs a collection and discussion of the stories of several women on the autism spectrum.
Sheâs offering $100 for a good piece of original art for the cover, created by a woman on the autism spectrum.
It can be something youâve already done, it can already be posted online somewhere, just as long as itâs your own work and you think it would fit well with a book about autistic womenâs stories.
Since itâs a pretty serious book (again, a PhD thesis), I donât think sheâd be interested in art thatâs cartoonish, but whatever you have, it canât hurt to try.
Iâm guessing it would have to be a pretty high-resolution image. 300 dpi at least. And big enough to fill the width of a standard book cover (maybe 6 by 9 inches). I donât think it has to be the same dimensions as a book cover, because they can put the title and authorâs name above and below it, or crop to a part of it. But it needs at least enough resolution for them to do that.
To submit:
Send me (@erikahammerschmidt) either a message on Tumblr, or an email at humanalien@gmail.com. Include either an attached file of the art, or a link to where you have it up online.
I will send Heather what you send me. Sheâll look at the pieces and pick one to use. Iâll get back to the winner when she decides.
Notes:
1. I am not sure of the deadline, and she isnât either. Itâs probably soon, because the book is just about to come out. So I wouldnât recommend starting a project that will take a long time.
2. I am not sure how the artist would be paid. Iâm guessing she could do Paypal or a check in the mail, but I donât know for sure. I really havenât gotten much time to talk to her about this, and Iâm in a hurry to post this because the deadline is probably quite soon.
2. She hasnât told me how she defines either âautisticâ or âwomen.â She seems like a very progressive and accepting person, so I would hope that she would accept self-diagnosed autistics and trans women, but I canât guarantee that she would. However, I doubt that she would require you to show her your diagnosis or the sex on your birth certificate, and she might have to know your legal name in order to send you the payment but thatâs probably all.
