By Robin Lowey–
I was a pioneering lesbian mother in the early 1990s—a time when there weren’t very many of us. My partner and I each gave birth to a boy. These two guys are now fully launched adults and they make me proud every day!
As an out-mom, a coach for little league and soccer teams, and a speaker for the LGBTQ center making presentations at local schools, I witnessed homophobia first-hand. The boys often came home from school or sports practice distressed from name-calling and hearing “that’s so gay” in the schoolyard.
After the boys grew up and I had more time on my hands, I began thinking about how I could help make school campuses safer and more inclusive. That’s when I came up with the idea for Lesbian Game Changers. We help create safer campus environments by providing educational materials that teach LGBTQ+ inclusive history.
It started with a book: Game Changers – Lesbians You Should Know About. The colorful, graphic-novel style large-format book tells the stories of women who made significant contributions to LGBTQ+ culture.
In 2020, the book went into a second printing and found its way into every public high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, serving over 300,000 students!
After that, I began thinking about how I could do more. Just before COVID-19 hit, I worked with my filmmaker/partner, Eliza Karlson, to film a series about lesbian heroes as an adjunct to the book. Our two finished short-films about Kate Kendell and Olga Talamante are being premiered at Manny’s in San Francisco this month. We hope to make more films and are seeking funding to continue the project.
Last year, I was approached by the Tamalpais Union High School District to develop a Queer history lesson based on the book. I spent countless hours researching and developing the lesson under the guidance of educators, students, and my own kids.
The two short-films are a perfect addition to the history lesson. My intent is to make sure each student receives their own book in the history classes that choose to teach this lesson. Believe it or not, many students are big fans of analog these days, and they appreciate a colorful book they can actually hold in their hands and flip through. The material is appropriate for all grades of high school and college.
The lesson is currently being piloted in Marin County at Redwood, Tamalpais and Archie Williams high schools!
Game Changers is available for free as an eBook. Print books are for sale, and the lesson plan will soon be available to any school that is interested.
Find out more at https://lesbiangamechangers.com/
Robin Lowey (she/her) is the Executive Director of Lesbian Game Changers, a fiscally sponsored project of Our Family Coalition. Speaker, author, filmmaker, and queer historian, Lowey seeks to elevate the discourse in our country about the role lesbian history plays in advancing LGBTQ+ civil rights and social equity. She is the author of “Game Changers: Lesbians You Should Know About.” Now in its second printing, “Game Changers” won best LGBTQ+ book in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in 2018.
Published on November 2, 2023
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