Lillian Faderman

Lillian Faderman
Born (1940-07-18) July 18, 1940
The Bronx, New York
Occupation Writer, professor
Nationality American
Subject Lesbian history, LGBT history
Partner Phyllis Irwin[1]
Children Avrom
Lillian Faderman signing THE GAY REVOLUTION in LA, 2015

Lillian Faderman (born July 18, 1940) is an American historian whose books on lesbian history and LGBT history have earned critical praise and awards.

Early life

Faderman was raised by her mother, Mary, and her aunt, Ray. In 1914, her mother emigrated from a shtetl in Latvia to New York, planning eventually to send for the rest of the family. Her aunt Ray came in 1923, but the rest of the family was killed during Hitler's extermination of European Jews, and Mary blamed herself for not being able to rescue them. Her guilt contributed to a serious mental illness that would profoundly affect her daughter.[2]

Mary and Ray, Faderman's mother and aunt, worked in the garment industry for very little money. Lillian was her mother's third pregnancy; her mother (unmarried) aborted the first two pregnancies at Lillian's biological father's request, but insisted on bearing and raising the third. Mary married when Lillian was a teenager and died in 1979, continuing to have a profound influence on her daughter’s life.

Coming out

The family moved to Los Angeles, where with her mother’s encouragement Lillian took acting classes. She began modeling as a teenager, discovered the gay bar scene and met her first girlfriend. Before she graduated from high school, she married a gay man much older than herself, a marriage that lasted less than a year.

Scholarship

Faderman studied first at the University of California, Berkeley and later at UCLA. She was a professor of English at California State University, Fresno and a visiting professor at UCLA. She retired in 2007.

Private life

She lives with her partner of forty years (as of 2012), Phyllis Irwin. She has one son, Avrom, who earned a PhD from Stanford University.[3]

Awards & Honors

Works

Footnotes

  1. "Finding Aid for the Lillian Faderman papers, 1976-1989". Online Archive of California. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
  2. Marler, Regina (February 18, 2003). "Naked History". The Advocate. Retrieved 2007-03-21.
  3. Wall, Alexandra J. (October 31, 2003). "A life exposed: From student stripper to respected professor, lesbian historian bares her own secrets". Jweekly.com. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  4. "Lillian Faderman". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.

External links

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