The Westchester LGBTQ+ History Project

A lifelong Westchester resident (save two years living in Long Island), Donna Rothstein has been connected to the lesbian community here since the mid-1970s.

In the 1980s, she was instrumental in the creation of Westchester Lesbian Connection, following years of involvement with The Southern Westchester NOW’s Task Force on Sexuality and Lesbianism.

Westchester Lesbian Connection ran for nearly 20 years. During this time, the self-sustaining group provided a space for lesbians to learn, socialize, perform, and more. Highlights from these years that Donna discusses in this interview include a trip to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn, NY, a performance run of “The Vagina Monologues” (which raised $300 for My Sisters Place), and various social events like picnics and dances.

When it was necessary to get up and speak in front of other people and sort of push the envelope; to rally around the flag and that kind of thing—I never thought I’d be able to do it. It brought a part of me out that I never even knew was there. And I feel also very grateful for that, because that changed my life, too. I became more confident.

—Donna Rothstein

In this interview with the Westchester LGBTQ+ History Project, Donna reflects on her years of lesbian activism, relationships between The LOFT and other groups,

To view the full transcript of this interview, click here.

The other one of the other events was our trip to the Lesbian Herstory Archives, which was a great experience. We rented a big yellow school bus and we had little lunches, peanut butter jelly sandwiches and juice boxes. We arrived at the archives with the yellow bus. I don’t think the members of the archives expected that there were going to be so many of us. We spent the day there. They were very, very nice and very, very helpful.

One of our leaders, Allegra Perhaes, who was supposed to go there, got sick. She had initially been in Hawaii. The archives, I don’t know if you’ve been there, but it’s just got things from all over the world. Everything—buttons, musical instruments, clothing, I mean, books, for sure. So I went to the Hawaiian archives, and I found the newsletter that she had put together when she was in Hawaii.

And I also found a couple of newsletters from the Task Force.