Kat Duff moved to Austin from Northampton in 1976, drawn here by the city’s
reputation as a politically active environment. She moved into an all-lesbian
living collective and worked for Red River Women’s Press, also a collective.
Later, Duff became an astrologer, and has written The Alchemy of Illness, a book
about chronic fatigue syndrome. She currently resides in Taos, New Mexico. Q: Do you think of yourself as a Seventies’ dyke, and what does that mean to you?
A: I would have used the word “dyke,” yes, because I got that from Northhampton. And lesbian. I wouldn’t have used “queer.” (I) didn’t relate to gay men here
much at all. Went to The Hollywood, it was the only bar I remember. There was a
women’s bar that closed around the time I got to town — Pearl Street, or
something that I heard about, you know.
I would relate to the generation that was having lesbian relationships
before there was a lesbian movement. And so I wouldn’t exactly say “Seventies,” ’cause it kind of straddles that. “Seventies dyke,” I guess I would say, is kind
of like riding the wave of an out-lesbian movement, and all the cocky kind of,
umm, cocky, courageous energy that comes with that. You know, you’re saving the
world. You’re the salvation of the world, in a way, you kind of felt like that. You know, now I look back and I think that’s all defensive posturing, but it was
important that we did because of what we had to defend ourselves against — to
just have a space to feel good about ourselves.
This article appears in February 7 • 1997 and February 7 • 1997 (Cover).