Sandra Martinez opened Chances in the 1980s, widely remembered as a legendary lesbian bar and punk performance space.
The genres of these bands ranged from folk to experimental to funk, but at the core was the punk ethos of nonconformity and individuality. Other notable women in the lesbian music community included Darcee Douglass, Terri Lord, Meg Hentges, and Kay Turner, who played in various bands including Power Snatch, Sincola, and Swine King. Phillips formed multiple lezzie rock bands, including Meat Joy, Two Nice Girls, Girls in the Nose, Lord Douglass Phillips, and The Gretchen Phillips Xperience. The openness about sexuality from a lesbian perspective was arguably the beginning of the Riot Grrrl movement, which gave a platform for feminism in the punk rock scene. The boldness of Floyd and Turner encouraged Phillips to create politically charged and sexually frank music in female-fronted queer bands. Along with the underrepresentation of LGBTQ-identifying musicians, as lesbian singer-songwriter Gretchen Phillips points out, very few rock bands were female-led. Masculinity was deep-seated within the hardcore punk scene, and few punk musicians were openly gay. The number of out, or openly gay, performers in Austin’s local music scene by the 1980s was growing, with nationally recognized punk musicians such as Gary Floyd of the Dicks and Randy “Biscuit” Turner of the Big Boys. The 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City brought a spotlight to injustices against LGBTQ communities, and the following decades ushered in a fight for LGBTQ rights and visibility. In the 1970s the gay liberation movement was gaining momentum across the country, including in Austin, Texas. Girls in the Nose filming Breast Exam music video, 1994 On view in the David Earl Holt Gallery, April 24, 2018-July 22, 2018
We'll Just Rock for Ourselves: Selections from the Lisa Davis Photograph Archive