In these infinitely more accepting times, it’s more important than ever to remember, pay tribute to, and celebrate the lives of foremothers like Córdova. Especially right here, in this space, right now, because we would not exist were it not for all the publications for lesbian, queer and bisexual women that came before us — the community they built, the stories they shared, the political issues they hashed out and the divisions they investigated.
Jaffe nails the teenage queer experience in other ways, too. The frenetic buzzing of learning how to be: “There was something—a clipped, vein-pumping energy—that was ordering me up to my room to be alone with it.” Figuring out crushes: “If I ran all the way to Alexis’s house I could pretend it was just something I did, in the night, for training, whatever, this is your house?” And a budding lesbian’s opinion on boys: “He had on the wool cap, and his face was a face…Looking at Kyle and trying to guage his hotness, I felt as if I had never bad a feeling in my body in my life.”
