Alix Dobkin - Lesbian Icon - Lesbian Herstory - Lesbian Music

Lavender Jane Loves Women

Alix Dobkin is a Lesbian Icon, an Out and Proud Lesbian and
we at OutLesbian.com thank Alix Dobkin for all she has done

for the Out Lesbian Community.

Alix Dobkin released Lavender Jane Loves Women in 1973. She was a very out and proud lesbian lesbian and this was an out lesbian musical recording. Alix Dobkin has sang to generations of lesbians since then about the power of living a lesbian life.

Alix Dobkin was born August 16, 1940 and cut her activism teeth growing up a Jewish radical in the "red-baiting" McCarthy-era of the 1950s. Growing up she listened to the music of The Weavers, Ronnie Gilbert, Woody Guthrie, Elizabeth Cotton, Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson, all folk singers with a political edge.

Alix Dobkin: 1960s Folk Musician: In 1962, Alix Dobkin set out for Greenwich Village, New York to be a part of the burgeoning folk music scene. She played with Janis Ian, Bob Dylan and Buffy St. Marie.

Not a Lesbian Yet: Alix married a friend who was the manager of a folk music club and traveled the folk music circuit through out the 1960s. Together they had a daughter. Alix came out in 1972 when she fell in love with a friend. She immediately began writing and singing for other lesbians.

Alix Dobkin has been called "Head Lesbian" because of her lesbian visibility in the community. She says, "Over the last 25 years I have travelled to hundreds of women's communities in this country and in many others. It has ben my privilege and pleasure to gather elements of our common culture and to create a body of songs and workshops to share with you, honoring and reflecting our unique lesbian style, substance, issues and values."

Because of Alix Dobkin's support of lesbians and women-only spaces Alix Dobkin has been accused of many things, including being a man-hater and transphobic. To these accusations Alix says, "I certainly have strong opinions about men's violence, men's dominance, men's politics, male institutions, male hierarchies and penis-centered culture (don't you?), but man-hating is irrelevant in my life." And "I look to transexuals to break new ground and not reinforce conventional gender stereotypes."

In 1973 Alix Dobkin produced Lavender Jane Loves Women with Kay Gardner, the very first album for and by lesbians. She has chronicled the lives of lesbians in her music. "The Woman in Your Life" talks about being your own best friend and her famous/funny "Amazon ABCs" sings, "A, you're an Amazon..." And "Lesbian Code" in which she recites different code words we use for one another like, "Member of the Team," "Family", "Sings in the Choir."

Lesbians coming out today probably cannot understand the impact that Alix Dobkin's music had on the lesbian community of the time. There were no gays on TV, let alone a whole gay network. NEVER before had a lesbian recorded a whole album specifically by and for lesbians. To hear a lesbian sing of being out, proud and beautiful was a revolutionary act. Alix Dobkin's music has the ability to move women to tears, and fire them up still today.

Alix Dobkin still tours and gives workshops about the early women's music movement. Alix Dobkin says, "What I'm up to these days is being a grandma to two grandsons. The youngest is less than two months old, but the older one, two and a half, is the light of my life and keeps a smile on my face."