As we live through the midpoint of our ’20s, it’s hard to say these years have roared like the Jazz Age of a century ago. So, we hopped in the GO time machine to celebrate the bold, resilient lives of 1920s lesbians and queer women. Despite societal pressures and legal restrictions, LGBTQ people of the era found ways to live, love, and build community—often in the shadows, but sometimes daringly out in the open.
The 1920s were a complex time for queer folks. While big cities like Berlin, Paris, and New York saw thriving underground scenes, thanks to cabarets and speakeasies that doubled as safe havens, being openly LGBTQ was incredibly risky. The decade’s flapper culture and loosened social norms brought some measure of freedom for women. The same social rules that celebrated “modern” femininity often punished anyone who transgressed the boundaries of heteronormativity. Yet, as the photos in this collection show, queer women of the 1920s found ways to express themselves with defiant glamour and joy.
Related: 4 Dramatic AF Historical Lesbian Love Triangles To Get Obsessed With
A special thanks goes to @thehistoricalhomo, the Instagram account curating an archive of LGBTQ history, for providing many of the images featured here. Their dedication to preserving and sharing queer history is invaluable—and it makes this trip back to the 1920s all the more vivid.
“Le Monocle, a popular lesbian club in Paris 1920s/1930s. The name Le Monocle derived from a trend at the time where women who identified as lesbian would sport a monocle to indicate sexual preference.”:
“A group of patrons, many dressed as men in tuxedos, and some with monocles, sit, talk, laugh, and kiss, at Le Monocle.”:
Le Monocle, circa 1920:
Assorted photos from Le Monocle and other welcoming Parisian clubs:
“If you were to hang around Montmartre after sundown in the 1920s & 30s, it’s likely you were looking for something a little more Avant-Garde than what you might find on the Parisian Left Bank. At the time, it was a haven for struggling artists, bohemians, burlesque dancers, straying husbands as well as a vibrant gay & lesbian community.”:
“A gender bending blues performer [who] became Harlem royalty in the 20s, Gladys Bentley. In her top hat and tux, Bentley dazzled…with her song writing and piano playing. She was one of the first proud and out women of blues.”:
“In the 1920s, lesbian couple Madge Garland and Dorothy Todd turned British Vogue into a masterpiece of fashion, journalism, literature and art. Todd became the magazine’s editor in 1922, and Garland its fashion director; the couple centered women’s voices and commissioned the likes of Jean Cocteau and Man Ray.”:
More assorted 1920s lesbian realness:
These glimpses of the 1920s remind us how queer joy and defiance have always found a way to shine through. The stories and faces captured here are a powerful reminder of the strength it takes to carve out space for ourselves in any era. Let’s honor their legacy by continuing to build a future as bold and vibrant as the past.
