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When Lauren discovered the Lesbian Herstory Archives many years ago, it was a magical place where she could immerse herself in generations of Lesbian culture and history. This eventually led to her getting involved in the Dyke March, a yearly protest march for Lesbian rights and visibility. Though Lauren told us this story over ten years ago, her activism has not ceased. Now an ER nurse, she has expanded her activism on the streets to include the hospital floor as well.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:05
Welcome to this week’s Story Update. We’re going to be speaking with Lauren Gulbrandsen,
00:10
but first we’re going to take a look at her story.
00:12
I’m Lauren Gulbrandsen and I’m from Brooklyn, New York, originally.
00:17
I never really felt like being gay was so political until I went to the Archives — the
00:27
Lesbian HerStory Archives — for the first time. It’s just like a magical kind of place.
00:31
It’s an archive, it’s like a library of all lesbian-specific books and articles and
00:38
pictures and videos and just going through all that stuff and realizing the shoulders
00:48
that I’m standing on, and all the work that people did so I can be where I am and gay
00:55
youth can be where they are. When I first went there, I walked in and I
01:00
was like, first of all, how did I not know this existed and secondly I didn’t even
01:04
know where to begin because you walk in and it’s like books, and you’re like, “Okay,
01:08
books…” and you don’t really realize that there’s so much more than just books
01:12
there. The first box that I opened was probably the
01:15
Lesbian Avengers box, which is like this fierce, radical dyke activist group. And being able
01:26
to actually touch their banners and listen to the tape from the answering machine — like
01:33
hateful shit on the answering machine. So I’d just read an article, I mean, that’s
01:37
cool too, reading an article about an organization but actually being able to hold the stuff
01:42
they held, you know, feel the shirts that they wore, things like that I really like.
01:47
And you’re able to do that there, so it’s just really inspiring to keep that momentum
01:52
going and keep fighting the good fight for gay rights and lesbian rights and queer rights
02:00
in general. And through that I kind of got involved with the Dyke March, also which happens
02:06
every year which happens the last Saturday every June. And being part of the Dyke March
02:10
is also how I keep in touch with my political queer side and marching with all those women
02:19
down 5th Avenue is just the most amazing feeling to me.
02:23
I think there was this moment, actually, there was this moment at the Dyke March, I was standing
02:28
on this rock right near my favorite building in New York which is the Flatiron Building
02:33
and I was just watching this sea of women and I was helping to lead this sea of women
02:38
that were just fierce and screaming and rambunctious and all that good stuff, just leading them
02:44
in just trying to find where all the marshals were and taking care of everyone there who
02:48
was involved. It was just really rewarding to me to start and finish with this amazing
02:53
march. All right. Welcome, Lauren. How are you doing?
02:58
I’m doing well, all things considered. How are you?
03:03
Doing exactly the same. Very well, all things considered. So in your story, you talked about
03:11
how big of an impact finding the Lesbian Herstory Archives were to you. Are you still involved
03:17
with them at all with LHA? I’ve been away from Brooklyn for the last
03:23
couple of years. I only came back this past March. And obviously since COVID has been
03:28
going on, the Archives has been closed. Prior to that, I’ve been more focused on my job.
03:35
I’m an ER nurse and have been for the last five years. And so while I do attend Archive
03:45
events and things like that, I haven’t been as active as like an organizer or anything
03:49
like that. But financially, yes, I’m a supporting member of the Archives for sure.
03:55
Also part of your story in addition to the archives was activism and discovering either
04:00
your first March and kind of, you know, tapping into that part of your life. Especially recently,
04:06
there’s been a lot of protests, a lot of marches, a lot of activism the past few months. How
04:10
have you been involved? And also there’s been Pride month and, you know, have you been involved
04:15
much or have… you’re a nurse now, so maybe you’ve been super busy and maybe avoiding
04:21
crowds. I’m not sure. How – what’s your activist life like these days?
04:25
So I would say that being a nurse is also like being an activist. But in addition to
04:30
that, I’ve also been on the streets as well with everyone for Black Lives Matter. And
04:36
for the Dyke March specifically that we spoke about, I’ve been active in participating in
04:42
the Dyke March, since we last spoke, every year. This year in particular, though, we
04:48
took a step back back and decided in lieu of doing the actual Dyke March this year that
04:54
we would center ourselves as a committee, and help amplify black leaders.
05:02
So we did a number of marches, including working with a Black Trans activist named Selu, who
05:11
we did one of their marches in June. And then we’re doing another one this coming Saturday
05:17
as well, August 1st. I don’t know when this is going to be out, but it’s about the allyship
05:22
and how to participate as an ally and what that really means.
05:26
And, we also did a march about confronting July 4th, that was Black…Black Lesbian-led.
05:36
And another, Black-led march by a former Lesbian Avenger, which is funny ‘cause I was also
05:44
speaking about that 10 years ago as well. So I think our focus has shifted a little
05:51
bit to supporting people already leading, and you know, looking for ways to amplify
06:00
those voices.
06:01
Great. If anyone wants to, like, learn more about all the things that you just mentioned
06:05
and find resources, is there a way to… is it… is there like a Dyke March website where
06:11
people can go to kind of learn more about that?
06:13
Yeah. There is a Dyke March website. You can just look up NYC Dyke March on Google. I think
06:18
it’s nycdykemarch.com. I didn’t look beforehand. But you definitely, I mean, I think we’re
06:24
most active on Instagram and Facebook, so you can find us at NYCDykeMarch on Facebook
06:30
or NYC DykeMarch on Instagram. And you’ll learn more about all of the actions that we’re
06:36
supporting and all of the political movements that we’re working with.
06:41
Great. That’s awesome. So you’ve… you stayed very active in the activist community. And,
06:48
and I also really love what you said about how being a nurse is a form of activism. So
06:52
thanks for all that you do as a nurse as well. And what… what do you think that, like,
06:59
if there’s someone, who’s looking to get involved with Lesbian activism or, you know, what would
07:06
you recommend someone do? You know, like the way that you discovered the Archives? What
07:11
would you… where would you direct someone who might be watching this and kind of dabbling
07:16
and young Lesbian activism? What would you – or another way of thinking about that is
07:21
what would you tell yourself, you know, as a younger Lesbian?
07:25
Well, I mean, things are a lot different now. I think information is just so much more accessible
07:34
to people. I mean, especially if you have internet access, I should say. But I would
07:39
say just going to pages like NYCDykeMarch and then just figuring out, like, what accounts
07:48
are linked to that and just kind of exploring that way.
07:51
I mean, I’m learning a lot now, you know, about activism and about how to treat people
07:58
in the street. You know, I’m learning so much myself. So the internet obviously is the very
08:04
broad and great place to figure out how to get involved. And there are a lot of people
08:13
who have accounts based on like, on education, on like how to be an activist, how to like
08:20
get involved, how to call you you’re, you know, City council members. It’s a lot easier
08:27
now, I think, just to kind of figure things out and a lot of people who are leading the
08:32
way and like giving you concrete ways to act is great. And just, you know, trying to form
08:42
affinity groups with your Dyke friends, you know, and making it fun as well as powerful
08:49
and getting out there in any way that you can.
08:52
So what else – you’ve told us that you’re a nurse. Has there been any other big life
08:56
changes going on in the past? I think we’ve last spoke 10 years ago. So the past decade,
09:02
anything big going on in your life? Yeah, a few things have happened. Yeah. I’m
09:08
a nurse. I, and I did two years of travel nursing. I did ER nursing out in California
09:14
and a bunch of places, in Portland, Oregon, in Phoenix, Arizona, and I think that’s it.
09:22
But a bunch of places in California and I’m just obsessed with the West Coast. And I was
09:29
able to do that with my partner and we – who is also a nurse. She’s a pediatric oncology
09:34
nurse. And we just recently got engaged. So that’s really special.
09:40
Aw, congratulations! Thank you. Yeah. So we are getting married
09:44
next July on our fourth anniversary and hopefully it’ll go as planned. I mean, we have another
09:54
year or so of who knows what. I mean, who knows what the world will look like in a year,
09:59
but it’s good to, you know, be positive and look forward to things even though everything’s
10:07
kind of crappy right now. Yeah. But you gotta have hope and you have
10:12
to have things to look forward to and, you know, that’s what keeps people going I think.
10:17
So, that’s great. And congratulations again. Is there anything else that you want to share?
10:22
Any thoughts or any updates or any messages that you want to get out there?
10:26
Probably a lot of things. I think that it’s important to find ways in which you can participate
10:34
in activism without draining yourself, ways for it to be sustainable because it’s a marathon,
10:44
not a sprint, for example. And we have a lot of… a lot of fighting to do still. For everyone,
10:53
you know, it’s not, and it’s not all about you and your identity and your… and your
10:58
place in the world, but you know, looking out to your community and seeing the ways
11:04
in which you can better the world. I don’t know. Just figure out the small things that
11:08
you can do because we can all do something even from our homes.
11:12
Yeah. Any activism big and small all makes a difference in some way I think.
11:16
So all right, well, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. And if anyone has any
11:22
questions for Lauren, just leave them in the comments. And Lauren, we’ll ask that you,
11:26
check back periodically and, and maybe answer some questions if you’re okay with that.
11:31
And if you want to watch Lauren’s story, it’s on our website. All of our stories are on
11:36
Facebook and Instagram. and we’re uploading every single week. So, you can watch them
11:41
all out there and you can check back next week for our next story update.
11:45
Thanks for watching.
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