Jeanne Córdova
| Jeanne Córdova | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 18, 1948 Bremerhaven, Germany |
| Died | January 10, 2016 (aged 67) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | writer / activist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of California, Los Angeles |
| Notable works | When We Were Outlaws |
| Notable awards | Lambda Literary 'Lammy Award', Publishing Triangle, Golden Crown |
Jeanne Córdova (July 18, 1948 – January 10, 2016) was an American pioneer lesbian and gay rights activist, a founder of the West Coast LGBTQ movement, and a journalist and Lammy award-winning author for her memoir When We Were Outlaws: a Memoir of Love and Revolution.
Córdova was born in Bremerhaven, Germany in 1948, the second oldest of twelve children born to a Mexican father and Irish American mother. She attended high school at Bishop Amat High School in La Puente, California, east of Los Angeles and went on to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Social Welfare. She interned in the African-American and Latino communities of Watts & East Los Angeles and earned a master's degree in Social Work at UCLA in 1972.
Córdova entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent after high school in 1966, but left in 1968 and completed her social work degree while becoming a community organizer/activist and later a journalist. She began her lesbian and gay rights career as Los Angeles chapter President of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). During her DOB presidency she opened the first lesbian center in Los Angeles, in 1971. Under Córdova the DOB chapter newsletter evolved into The Lesbian Tide with Córdova serving as editor and publisher of what became "the newspaper of record for the lesbian feminist decade" (1970–1980), ranked "highest in the criteria of journalistic excellence", and notable as the first American magazine to use the word "lesbian" in its title.
In the 1970s Córdova was a key organizer of four lesbian conferences, among them the first West Coast Lesbian Conference at Metropolitan Community Church (1971) and the first National Lesbian Conference at the University of California, Los Angeles (1973). She also sat on the Board of the Los Angeles Gay Community Services Center and became the Human Rights Editor of the progressive weekly, the Los Angeles Free Press (1973–1976).
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