Jinx Beers

Memoirs of an Old Dyke Jinx Beers

Born in a dysfunctional lower middle class family in the middle of the "big" depression, no one could have predicted that Jinx Beers would be a pioneer for the lesbian/gay rights movement in Southern California and the founder of the world's longest running lesbian nespaper. Jinx, who acquired the first name from an older sister and eventually made it legal, joined the U. S. Air Force when she was eighteen to get away from her home life-and never looked back. She used her G. I. Bill to get a college degree and spent the next eighteen years on the UCLA campus in research in traffic safety. Meanwhile, the action on Christopher Street raised the conscience of many lesbians and gays who began to join the agitation for lesbian/gay rights. Ferment in the Losa Angeles community lead to Jinx's founding of The Lesbian News in 1976. Although she is no longer associated with the newspaper, it has been published continuously for more than thirty years. Now seventy-five years old, Jinx has written her autobiography. This is the inside informtion on what makes this "Feminist Who Changed America" tick. For those who are interested in understanding one lesbian activist's life, read on.