Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence

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There’s so much power for me in connecting with other lesbian women from the past, both distant and not so distant.

Rosemary Keefe (also known as Rosemary Curb, February 3, 1940 May 24, 2012) was an American nun, university professor, and lesbian author. Each nun in these stories describes her individual and searing path in, or out of, the convent to discover and face the truth of herself. The first hand accounts of inner turmoils and interpersonal relationships showcased strong commonalities as well as the uniqueness in each experience.

The book was published in 1985 and definitely is dated but still a unique look at religious life and lesbians at a particular time and place. An older nun, she was both teacher and inspiration to Nancy Manahan, who was at the time in her first year at the Maryknoll Missionary Sisters’ Novitiate near St. The Boston archdiocese contacted a news station and appealed for the cancellation of a televised interview with one of the book’s editors. As a non-religious, young queer person it was also a great window into the history/origins of the gay movement and 2nd wave feminism and especially interesting in the context of religious communities.

Los Angeles resident Jean O’Leary, executive director of National Gay Rights Advocates (a public interest law firm that handles precedent-setting cases involving discrimination against gay people) said her youthful independence asserted itself in actions such as “putting goldfish in the holy water font. A group of nuns become possessed by demons and are then tortured in a dungeon of horrors during the inquisition. The book also happens to be the earliest known biography of an African woman (possibly excepting Egyptian material which may not exactly qualify as biography).

During the 1570s, in the convent of Sant'Arcangelo di Baiano, after the death of the mother superior, a power struggle rages on, as one nun, who comes from a powerful family, is willing to do anything to become the new abbess. Turning off the personalised advertising setting won’t stop you from seeing Etsy ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive. My one wish is that the focus of the book was not so America- (and Canada-)centric; my film takes place in France and I am curious to know how cultural differences impact homophobia in the church. Yet, if they knew I was a Lesbian, they might know me even less, because of whatever homophobia, stereotypes, or projections they might have.