If Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby" makes you smile, you'll remember 1977 and 1978 with a mischievous grin on your face. You'll probably finish reading this story and realize you have just flashed through an avalanche of memories. Quite likely, you will pour a glass of your new favorite beverage (which probably isn't anything like the Long Island Ice Teas or Amaretto Sours you drank back then) and make your way to your big comfy recliner, where you will prop your stocking-ed feet up. You might ask your partner, "Have you done something with the heating pad?" Yes, of course she has you never put it up! Once your partner has retrieved your "electric lover" - and of course plugged it in and turned it on for you - you'll sip your beverage as you surf through the endless channels on your high tech 64" television pretending there's nothing much on your mind, but you will remember, "When you're laying so close to me, there's no place I'd rather you be, than with me I, love to love you baby."
Lesbians in the 70s we will never pass this way again. Forget the internet, social media, cell phones, "agendas" and most everything else it means to be a lesbian today it didn't exist! Gay bars were not "uber friendly" hot spots, nor were you likely to find easy access to them since most were hidden in the darkest of shadows, obscured from the view of the critical and homophobic world that had just endured the 60s. There were no giant rainbow signs pointing the way to Oz, no parking lot full of shiny cars adorned with pink triangles, lambda and labrys stickers. What there was in the 70s was Disco Dykes.
Being out was not in. Seldom did one see two beautiful lesbian models hanging on one another, having just flown in from a romantic honeymoon in Barbardos after their elaborate and expensive union in New Jersey or New Mexico. Employers did not offer benefits to domestic partners and parents still preferred the terms "roommates" or "friends." There was a harsh and very real stigma that attached itself like a leech to many lesbians, draining them of soul and self in the ongoing battle to understand and protect their true identity. Alcohol, drugs and infidelity swept through lives and left a trail of emotional rubble in the path. Disco Dykes is the tale of one such journey.