In honor of Pride Month, the graffiti pays tribute to Jeanne Córdova, a Chicana activist, feminist, author, and leader in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. On this day in 2012, Córdova received the prestigious Lambda Literary Award for her memoir, When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution.
Córdova was born in Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1948, the second of 12 children to a Mexican father and an Irish-American mother.
She began to advocate for lesbian rights while in college. While earning her master’s in social work at UCLA, she became president of the Los Angeles chapter of the lesbian rights organization Daughters of Bility (DOB) and was a key organizer of the first West Coast Lesbian Conference in 1971. Her DOB newsletter grew into Lesbian Tide, a national chronicle of a generation of lesbian feminists.
She brought passion and inclusivity to each publication she founded. In 1981, Córdova founded Yellow Pages Community, which became the largest LGBTQ+ directory in the United States. She also co-founded Square Peg Magazine, dedicated to queer culture and literature.
Cordova spent much of her time in activism and community organizing, participating in the 1978 National Lesbian Feminist Organization Conference and the campaign to reject California’s Proposition 64 in 1986, which would have forced HIV-positive people into isolation. She also served on the boards of several organizations, including the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Press Association.
In 1999, Cordova and her partner Lynn Harris Baren moved to BCS Todos Santos, Mexico. In her new home, Cordova worked on When We Were Outlaws: A Memoir of Love and Revolution. She and Ballen also founded the city’s first nonprofit dedicated to children’s education and literacy.
When Cordova returned to Los Angeles, she returned to her first love, journalism and writing, and, with her partner, founded the Lesbian Exploratorium, dedicated to queer art and history projects.
Thank you to Jeanne Cordova for her fearless commitment to freedom and dignity for the LGBTQ+ community. The change she has made is felt. Happy Pride Day everyone!