When Julia Beck was coming out (first by calling herself bisexual, and eventually embracing herself as a lesbian), most of the other women around her were calling themselves gender fluid or queer. Anything but what they plainly were, which was lesbian. She encountered the SCUM Manifesto, her first radical text, and began to question everything she understood about the order of men and women in society. She began working with Women’s Liberation Radio News and Women’s Liberation Front as her politics became unapologetically lesbian- and female-centered. It was also around this time that she was elected to Baltimore’s LGBT Commission, where she intended to use her seat to defend women's sex-based rights. On this commission, she was smeared by a man who ran the Baltimore trans advocacy group. She was voted off the commission, and he was voted on to replace her. The jury had spoken, and they’d decided a man in a stuffed bra could woman better than an actual woman. Since then, Julia has continued to fearlessly advocate for women’s rights. Join us for this conversation as we ask provocative questions about sexual politics for women.

58: Q&A and Photo Challenge