Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; 1945-63 Closet Lives; 1. A club you two girls might like; The Gateways, a Bohemian haven in a conformist era; 2. Lost in London; How gay women found each other in a period of secrecy and fear; 3. Natty suits and frilly frocks; Butch-femme role playing from the dance-floor to the bedroom; 4. Is she a friend of Dorothy?; How women led double lives, including some who passed as men; 1964-71 Screen Goddesses; 5. Letting lesbians into the living room; New images of gay women in literature and the media; 6. Changing times; Greater openness and unisex fashion transform gay women's culture; 7. The filming of Sister George; Gateways members in a landmark Hollywood movie; 8. You don't have to say you love me; Erotic encounters between women in the swinging sixties; 1971-85 Glad to be Gay? 9. We'll have no politics in her darling; The challenge of gay liberation and women's liberation; 10. Cheek to cheek and thigh to thigh; Passion and love in a new era of sexual freedom; 11. Truck drivers and teachers; Working lives, from blackmail attempts to trouser suit protests; 12. Out and proud?; Did gay women come out in the media and their private lives?; Conclusion: Was there a revolution in gay women's lives 1945-1985? Biographies of contributors; Chronology of Lesbian History 1945-1985; Glossary; Index

About the Author

Jill Gardiner is a freelance writer who lives in Brighton where she is a long-standing member of the OurStory Project - a lesbian and gay oral history group. Contributors to her book Daring Hearts: Lesbian and Gay Lives in 50s and 60s Brighton first inspired her interest in the Gateways Club.