Ach , Black Lesbian Newsletter, Brothers, Morena, and the Quarterly Exchange were published in Northern California. Other material can be located in the archives by using indexes, like those for the Ladder and the Advocate. The Historical Society also preserves the papers, photographs, and personal effects of numerous lesbian, gay, and transgendered individuals. Several of the collections contain valuable material on African Americans. Elsa Gidlow was a prominent Bay Area poet who became an important mentor to many lesbian feminists during the 1970s.
Word Is Out .
Among Gidlow's papers are many letters and photographs from her friend and lover Isabel Quallo. Isabel was born in Africa and raised in Britain and the West Indies. She had married young, moved to Harlem. By the time she met Gidlow, she was a widow. The women fell in love, and for a time lived together in Gidlow's Marin home, Druid Heights.