From the Midwest to Southeast Portland

Coming out in the 1970s

Ann Mussey talks about her going to Portland in 1971 with the intention of coming out as a lesbian.

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Ann Mussey

Assistant Professor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Portland State University

Ann Mussey is a tenure-line faculty in Women' Studies. She received her doctorate in U.S. History with a specialty in women's history from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in 2001. Her research has evolved from historical queries about the social construction of lesbian subjectivity in twentieth-century U.S. to questions about the complex relationships between sexuality, citizenship, and the nation state. She teaches topics related to feminist theory, queer studies, and the history of sexuality. She is currently working on a book entitled Perversion and Power: Lesbians and the Sciences of Sexuality, 1920-1970. In her free time, you will find her working in the garden, watching old movies, playing with the family pooches, and digging the sunset.

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