By Michael Helquist, $24.95; Oregon State University Press; 309 pages
Marie Equi's name had many reasons to be in the news in the early 1900s. She was a physician at time where women doctors were still a curiosity. She was a labor activist who believed in abortion and birth control. She rushed to provide aid in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Andknown as both "brilliant" and "a stormy petrel"she got her first headlines in her adopted state of Oregon by horsewhipping a man who insulted her girlfriend in the town square.
Historian Michael Helquist uncovers the compelling history of a forgotten figure of early feminism and a nascent LGBT icon. Equi had multiple relationships with women, including possibly with the mother of birth control, Margaret Sanger. A child of working-class parents in a Massachusetts mill town, she owed her education and subsequent future to the largesse of her first girlfriend, who funded Equi's high-school tuition. She later followed this sweetheart off to Oregon, where they proceeded to openly share a house. She also legally adopted and raised a daughter with one of her female partners, while a court battle about the partner's inheritance raged on.
Reading her biography requires some background knowledge of social movements in the early 1900s. Equi hopscotches between the Progressive Movement, being a suffragette, and labor rights, and having some passing familiarity with these groups will greatly aid the reading experience. Simply put, Equi couldn't ignore a causetreating laborers in her Oregon medical practice led to her own anarchy and demonstrations, and when she was imprisoned for subsequent activities, her letters see her calling for prison reform.
Helquist has done a great service in detailing Equi's life, as biographies at the intersection of pre 1950s West Coast activists and LGBT individuals are not common. With her blustering personality and zealous commitment to her values, it'd be a fascinating exercise to see Equi as a fictional character or some sort of time-traveling lesbian feminist superhero. It's not hard to imagine her as a ferocious ACT UP protester, or as part of second-wave feminism's Lavender Menace. Still, Helquist lets her speak through quotes in news accounts and snatches of correspondence, and that is often enough to enchant the readers. The book has been named a 2016 Stonewall Honor title by the American Library Association and the research alone deserves recognition.
Should Equi be a household name? With her genius for being tied to so many notable events of the 20th's century's first quarter, it seems odd that her tale hasn't arisen more often. But perhaps she's just such a singularly unique figure that it's only now that history can appreciate her intersections of class and sexuality. Equi openly shared her life with women: her closet has been historical. But LGBTQ people, with Helquist's help, should be proud to claim Equi as one of them.