as a lesbian activist in the late 1970s, “Race has been the most divisive [issue]. . . . Lesbians of Color formed, and we started doing workshops and calling white women on their bullshit.” As a dedicated activist, scholar, and archivist, Retter dedicated her life to organizing, supporting, and documenting lesbian communities in Southern California and across the United States. Retter - and other lesbians of color - encountered pervasive tensions based on race, class, gender, and sexuality within their social circles and throughout their careers. Gloria Anzaldúa framed this tension clearly in a 1979 essay: “We cannot educate white women and take them by the hand. Most of us are willing to help, but we can’t do the white women's homework for her. That’s an energy drain.” Anzaldúa and Retter both gestured to the fatigue that Latina lesbians and many women of color experienced while working with white lesbians.
Connexxus, a lesbian-serving organization based in Los Angeles, was not immune to the challenges that multi-racial organizations often faced. Retter and other Latina lesbians like Carla Barboza and Adel “Del” Martinez were critical to the development of Connexxus and its satellite location, Centro de Mujeres, in East Los Angeles. This paper investigates how lesbians navigated their demographic and social differences throughout the late 1980s in Los Angeles. Latina lesbians drove challenging conversations about race forward, much to the chagrin of white lesbians in leadership. Networks of solidarity formed and fissured as lesbians worked in a multi-racial context to empower their communities. Furthermore, I examine the Connexxus/Centro de Mujeres archival collection as a case study to further our understandings of the creation and function of queer archives.
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