{"id":37465,"date":"2026-04-02T14:45:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/?p=37465"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:33:25","slug":"finding-myself-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/blog\/finding-myself-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Myself in the Desert: Coming Out as a Lesbian in 1970s Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\"\"<\/p>

Finding Myself in the Desert: Coming Out as a Lesbian in 1970s Las Vegas<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

By Candice<\/p>

When people talk about being a lesbian today, there is often a sense of confidence around the word. It can feel empowered, reclaimed, even chic. But in the 1970s, in Las Vegas, the word \u201clesbian\u201d did not sparkle. It did not feel fashionable. It felt heavy. Dangerous. Lonely.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

I came of age in a city known for neon lights and spectacle, but there was\u00a0very little\u00a0light when it came to queer women\u2019s lives. Las Vegas in the 1970s was not the glamorous playground people\u00a0see\u00a0now. Beneath the glitz of the Strip was a culture shaped by conservatism, secrecy, and strict gender roles. Being different\u2014especially being a woman who loved women\u2014was not something you announced. It was something you hid.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The modern LGBTQ+ movement was still in its early, fragile years following the 1969 uprising at the Stonewall Inn. While that moment in New York sparked national conversations, those ripples took time to reach places like Las Vegas. And even when they did, they did not necessarily create safety. Visibility did not equal acceptance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

There were no rainbow flags in\u00a0storefront\u00a0windows. No Pride parades. No lesbian social groups advertised openly. If community existed, it was whispered about,\u00a0and I\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0know where to find it.\u00a0You had to know someone who knew someone. Bars were often the only gathering places, and even those carried\u00a0the\u00a0risk\u00a0of being\u00a0outed,\u00a0or\u00a0judged.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

And then there was the word itself: lesbian.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

It\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0celebrated. It\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0worn like a badge of pride. For many of us, claiming that word meant risking family rejection, job loss, and social exile. Even within\u00a0ourselves, it could be difficult to say. \u201cGay\u201d\u00a0or\u00a0\u201cbi\u201d\u00a0sometimes felt safer, softer, less specific. \u201cLesbian\u201d felt like a line in the sand.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Coming out was not a single moment\u00a0for me. It was\u00a0a slow, internal reckoning. There were no visible role models in Las Vegas at the time. No openly lesbian public figures lighting the way. If there were others like me, they\u00a0were navigating\u00a0the same fear, the same coded language. It still took me until I was 38 to officially come out!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

My journey in 1970s Las Vegas was not easy. It was marked by\u00a0internal\u00a0loneliness and uncertainty. But it was also marked by discovery\u2014the profound, grounding truth of knowing who I am.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Today, the word\u00a0<\/span>lesbian<\/span><\/i>\u00a0carries visibility and even style. It shows up in headlines, on T-shirts, in bios, at Pride celebrations. But I remember when it was heavy. When it\u00a0felt like stepping\u00a0into the unknown.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>And I am proud of the woman who\u00a0finally\u00a0stepped anyway.<\/p>

It\u2019s because of those brave steps\u2014yours, mine, and ours\u2014that we can now celebrate out loud. Join us at from April 20-26 as we honor Lesbian Visibility Week with a full week of events<\/a><\/strong> dedicated to the stories, the joy, and the community we\u2019ve built together. We\u2019ve come a long way, and we can\u2019t wait to be visible with you.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Coming out was not a single moment for me. It was a slow, internal reckoning. There were no visible role models in Las Vegas at the time. No openly lesbian public figures lighting the way. If there were others like me, they were navigating the same fear, the same coded language. It still took me until I was 38 to officially come out! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":37466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}