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[–]censorshipment 9 insightful - 6 fun9 insightful - 5 fun10 insightful - 6 fun -  (1 child)

Totally makes sense. She's 61... she was growing up during both the civil rights and women's rights movements - which were connected by black female activists who realized black male activists were misogynists who didn't give a shit about women ...similar to the connection between abolitionists and suffragists in the 1800s and early 1900s. My mom is 60 and went down this path except her desire for having a daughter was much stronger than her desire for being with a woman, so she dumped her lesbian girlfriend in 1979 to date my dad during their second year of college... and I was born in 1983 when my mom was 23 and dad was 24 after they were financially prepared to be parents. I'm named after my mom's lesbian ex. My mom doesn't identify as a former lesbian nor bi, even though she loved her ex and has been having sex with women during her marriages (she married my stepdad in 2006 after divorcing my dad in 2001). She identifies as straight because she's married to a man.

I say that to say black feminists born in the 50s/60s, who may have identified as lesbians, likely "hated men" because of black misogynists. Fannie Lou Hamer should be the face of the civil's rights movement, not Martin Luther King Jr. who may have watched a black woman get raped by his friend. Lyndon B. Johnson feared Fannie Lou Hamer... Johnson didn't fear MLK.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/martin-luther-king-rape-fbi-tapes-video-mlk-laugh-files-a8932206.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/06/civil-rights-crusader-fannie-lou-hamer-defied-men-and-presidents-who-tried-to-silence-her/

[–]paleolithicat[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's very interesting! Thank you for the comment. I don't have much more than general knowledge about these movements in America as I have grown up in a completely different setting. I don't doubt the credibility of her words but it doesn't make sense for me what she did to be labeled "lesbian lifestyle" nowadays. If I was her, I would tell the story as "I didn't want to be sexually involved with men as a form of protest" or something like that but in any case, it is her responsibility to not lead on her public by claims like "I was a lesbian 10years because I was an angry feminist and since then I have been leading a happy life as a straight woman".

The thing with MLK would be quite shocking if it is true but I wouldn't be so sure. It could easily be fabricated in order to discredit him. And there certainly are people who want that and would profit from that.

I will read into Fannie Lou Hamer nonetheless, thanks for the tip.