Out With Alix

On Feb. 7, Bob Linscott enjoyed the unique distinction of burrowing behind the lines and going where few men have gone before: inside women's space, at a conversation hosted by legendary women's music icon Alix Dobson.

"I have to say, as the only man at this event, it was such a privilege to be present," says Linscott, assistant director of the LGBT Aging Project, a Jamaica Plain-based organization dedicated to advocating for the rights of community elders. Among the regular programming offered by the LGBT Aging Project is Out to Brunch, monthly meet-ups for older lesbian, bi and trans women. Although the brunch is usually held at the Jamaica Plain office of Ethos, an elder services agency that cosponsors the event, the overwhelming response to Dobkin's appearance required that the event move to another venue, the assisted living community Roslindale House.

Over sixty women attended to listen in rapt attention to Dobkin, who first perked ears in the LGBT community with "Lavender Jane Loves Women," her 1973 folk album that broke ground as the first lesbian-focused album ever released. She has since garnered affection - and frequently courted controversy - for her uncompromising feminist politics. On Saturday, however, even the lone man in attendance could understand how Dobkin has established such a storied legacy. "I was so impressed by Alix," says Linscott. "I was even more moved by watching the reaction of the women watching her. They were mesmerized. Alix has become a heroine to many of these women. They hung onto every word of her stories and every note of her songs."

Bay Windows caught up with Dobkin after the event to discuss her work with LGBT elders, her upcoming memoirs, and how she perceives the past, present and future of lesbian culture.

Tell me about your work with the elder group Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC).

I joined when I was 60 [Note: Dobkin is currently 68], and I've been on the steering committee for three years. The mission of OLOC is to challenge ageism: that's why we call ourselves "old" lesbians. Not "older" lesbians! ... My personal mission is to get back in touch with my community that's short of been dispersed since the 1990s, to reconnect with my peers from the amazing lesbian feminism of the '70s and '80s.

Are there certain concerns and issues faced by elder lesbians that might not necessarily need to be addressed by their heterosexual peers?

For one, we serve as our own role models, which isn't true in the heterosexual community. Most role models are males, especially in our age group, and we need to look to each other and ourselves for our inspiration. ... We're responsible for inventing ourselves, which doesn't happen in other worlds. We also have fewer resources than men, gay men and straight men. Women have fewer resources on the whole - I'm generalizing - and many older lesbians don't have family and children to care for them, to help them out when they need it.

Looking at the state of lesbian culture right now, anything that truly excites you or that you see as a cause for celebration?

Absolutely. One is the kind of recognition that we old lesbians and gays are getting from mainstream groups. One SAGE [Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders] conference I attended in Brooklyn was cosponsored by AARP, so that kind of acknowledgment is right on the horizon and it's very exciting. We are becoming more visible than ever, which was nothing. We're getting a lot more attention and respect. That's one thing. I'm also excited about the work that many of us are doing with young lesbians, the cross-generational conversations that some of our groups like mine are initiating.

Do you find that there are disconnects between the generations?

There are quite a few disconnects, which of course is true in society at large. Our community is a reflection of the society we exist in, and the issues are often the same. But one of the things I noticed that really struck me and some of the OLOC women was how excited the young women got by hearing our stories. They hear about it, those years in the '70s and '60s, the second wave of feminism and consciousness raising and our political activism. They read about it in their textbooks but [in these conversations] it comes alive.

Again, looking at the state of lesbian culture right now, anything that concerns you or gives pause?

A number of things: For one, the absence of feminism, the absence of woman-centered identity, which exists very rarely. I haven't discovered much of it in the younger generation. We need to honor our women, put women in the center. In all the work I've done over the years I've found that [the term] "gender" disappears "woman." "Queer" disappears "woman." ... It's important to me to bring women back into the picture as women, not as queer, but as women. Not as some gender statement, but as women in a world that destroys women. Of course, it destroys a lot of people. But that's probably my deepest concern, the disappearance of feminism from the dialogue and from the conversations.

People often talk about how parenthood changes their perspective. What about grandparenthood?

It's turned my priorities around! Well, life really revolves around my grandchildren, which is a strange, wonderful and interesting thing. I've discussed this with other grandparents, and at an LGBT grandparent meeting in Boston a few months ago; there are a lot of us around! One thing I've heard is that being a grandparent is your reward for not killing your kids. [Laughs]. I had no expectations before my grandson was born and I had no idea what it would be like. It wasn't on my mind. But once it happened, I was a goner.

Any granddaughters?

Not yet. But in June!

Do you think that will be a different experience from your grandson?

Well, mostly I'm glad that my daughter will know what I'm talking about because boys and girls are very different, especially in the experience of raising them. So it's a great satisfaction to me to know that she is going to have to go through that, too.

You also have a memoir coming out?

I do, I've been working on it since 1992. It's going to be released in the fall of 2009 and it's titled My Red Blood: Radical Singer Takes on Her Times. It's all about the '40s, '50s and '60s, and it's about my communist family and the progressive Jewish culture that I was very lucky to be part of. ... It chronicles very crucial times in American history and world history, and I consider myself quite fortunate to have been at the right place at the right time throughout those decades. ... It actually ends after I come out, so it ends in 1972 because I wanted to document the '40s, the '50s and '60s because those times are so long gone.

What is it like to try and distill so many memories into a single book?

Distill is the key word. ... You think of all kinds of things you never thought before. When the Soviet Union dissolved and they didn't have the communists to kick around anymore, the [American] government was as at a loss: They didn't have their enemy! So I talked to my father at the time, and he said, "Well, the gays and lesbians are in the same place. ... It's queers and commies." And I said, "No, it's not going to be the same. They're going to go after us, but ... we're not going to be scared into silence."

Any moments in your life as an artist where you've felt misunderstood?

That actually never occurred to me until I became involved with lesbians, and then I was always misunderstood. All kinds of attributes were attributed to me, all kinds of stories and rumors: that I had a son who I rejected, to that I was a vegetarian. It comes with any sense of so-called celebrity, and women would grab on to any tidbit that sounded interesting or made it up if they had an ax to grind. I've always been controversial, I've always spoken my mind, and it disturbs some people. It's not comfortable for some people.

Any rumors that really wounded?

That I hate little boys. It's crazy. Never, even at the height of my separatism, I was never mean to little boys. I didn't like them at my concerts, but that's a different thing. But I wasn't mean to them, I never acted out like a number of lesbians... In my experience, the lesbians that were meanest to boys were most likely to go back to men because of their own unresolved issues, shall we say. That really upset me because it wasn't true.

You've also been accused of being transphobic.

I had no issue with the trans community. My issue was with women-only space, and that's where I've got into trouble. It's been totally misunderstood and often delivered as transphobia. I'm not afraid of transgender people - or transsexual, because some identify as transsexual and some as transgender. ... If people want to make their lives better, I'm certainly not going to object to that. People have a right to do that. So it's just when woman-only space is threatened that my guard goes up.