Bøger af Gerrie Schipske

Long Beach, California, founded in the 1880s by conservative, pro-temperance settlers, has been known as "American Colony," "Queen of the Beaches," "Iowa-By-The Sea," "Home of the Pike," and "Paradise for Pansies." This book gives a glimpse of how Long Beach went from making national headlines in 1914 for entrapping 31 gay men as "social vagrants" to receiving a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's "Municipal Equality Index" for issues that contribute to a positive climate for LGBTQA+ people. Over time, Long Beach changed, becoming one of the most diverse cities in California. Voters elected a lesbian to city council in 2006 and a gay mayor in 2014 who they sent to Congress in 2022. Its new main library is named in honor of its hometown lesbian heroine, Billie Jean King. Today, Long Beach has the third largest "Pride Parade and Festival" in California.

Since the earliest days of Long Beach, California, women have been involved in making their community a quality place in which to live and to work. They have raised families, money, and consciences. They have organized, worked, taught, and led. They have created music, art, theater, and story. They have fought for the right to vote and placed their names on ballots. They stepped up to serve our country and to risk their lives. They have competed in sports, flew planes, and have been successful in business. They are famous and unsung. Most importantly, they are the remarkable women of Long Beach.

The stories of those who lived in the city by the sea begin long before the 1878 date on the oldest headstone found in the city. Long Beach was the site of ceremonies, and perhaps the burial grounds, for the Tongva tribe. Many of those who later settled the city are buried in one of the four known cemeteries, Municipal, Sunnyside, Forest Lawn Long Beach, and All Souls. Two of the cemeteries hold the graves of several hundred Union and Confederate Civil War veterans, one Medal of Honor recipient, and a slave who served in the 1st Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment. The histories of the Municipal and Sunnyside Cemeteries include the 1921 discovery of oil, which made national news as descendants of the deceased fought for the oil underneath the graves. The fight resulted in a second Sunnyside Cemetery that later became Forest Lawn Long Beach. The scene of oil derricks surrounding the cemeteries was so surreal that it caught the attention of Ansel Adams, whose photographs of Sunnyside Cemetery are included.