Stella Rush and Helen Sandoz (aka Sten Russell and Helen Sanders) Interview, May 15, 1987 (Tape 1 of 3)
Stella Rush and Helen Sandoz discuss personal experiences about living as a lesbian in the late 1930's and early 1940's, Sandoz choosing to remain off camera for the interview. Featuring anecdotes of when they realized they were lesbians, career choices, and the story of their relationship.
Edited by Morgan Gwenwald, Manuela Soares, Sara Yaeger
Pratt Institute, School of Information and Library Science, LIS 668 Moving Image and Sound Archiving students. Edited by Lauren Allshouse, Kim Loconto, Rachel Smiley, and Sara White.
See the LHA Copyright Statement Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Preservation: .avi; Access: .mp4 [Digital Format]
Stella Rush & Helen Sandoz, May 15, 1987 (Tape 2 of 3)
The Ladder, women, Health Care, Healing, mental health
Stella Rush and Helen Sandoz discuss writing and printing the Ladder, and another lesbian publication, the One. They also touch on a range of topics including obscenity laws, pornography, spirituality, the Homosexual Bill of Rights, and DOB conferences. They discuss the politics of the 1980s and compare it to that of the 1950s. Stella goes into detail about her upbringing and subsequent mental health issues.
Stella Rush & Helen Sandoz, May 15, 1987 (Tape 3 of 3)
women, bars, discrimination, domestic partnerships, families, Gay Liberation Movement, Government, hate crimes, homosexuality, incest, intergenerational relationships, job discrimination, The Ladder, Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, mailing lists, mental health, mothers, older lesbians, parents of lesbians and gays, photography, police harassment, radical lesbians, rape, religion, Christianity, rumors, violence
Stella Rush and Helen Sandoz are interviewed in 1987. The interview mostly concerns Stella Rush, who talks about her childhood; specifically her encounters with incest and molestation. She also talks about her experiences with police discrimination in the 1950s and 1960s in L.A. Helen and Stella both talk about being editors of the Ladder and being a part of the DOB. Stella talks about workplace harassment, and fear of loser her job. They show photographs from the 1960s, including some of their cat. The video closes with the two discussing their wedding rings.
See the LHA Copyright Statement Photo by Morgan Gwenwald. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND