BURIED TOGETHER
Partner Bessie Holcomb, Harriet Speckart,
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Queer Places:
University of Oregon, 1585 E 13th Ave, Eugene, OR 97403, Stati Uniti
Nortonia Hotel, 409 SW 11th Ave, Portland, OR 97205, Stati Uniti
1423 SW Hall St, Portland, OR 97201, USA
Wilhelm Portland Memorial, 6705 SE 14th Ave, Portland, OR 97202, Stati Uniti
Marie
Equi (April 7, 1872 – July 13, 1952) was an early American medical doctor
in the American West devoted to providing care to working-class and poor
patients. She regularly provided birth control information and abortions
at a time when both were illegal. She became a political activist and
advocated civic and economic reforms, including women's right to vote and
an eight-hour workday. After being clubbed by a policeman in a 1913
workers' strike, Equi aligned herself with anarchists and the radical
labor movement.
Equi was a lesbian who maintained a primary relationship with
Harriet Frances Speckart (1883 - May 15, 1927) for more than a decade.
The two women adopted an infant and raised the child in an early example
of a same-sex alternative family. For her radical politics and same-sex
relations, Equi battled discrimination and harassment. In 1918, Equi was
convicted under the Sedition Act for speaking against U.S. involvement in
World War I. She was sentenced to a three-year term at San Quentin State
Prison. She was the only known lesbian and radical to be incarcerated at
the prison.
In the late 19th century, little was known or publicly discussed about
same-sex affairs between women. Instead in some spheres of society in the
United States, people recognized “romantic friendships” among women.
Wealthy and professional women at the time undertook what were called
“Boston Marriages.” These associations entailed varying degrees of
emotional and affectionate intimacy between two women and, often, sexual
activity as well.[2]
Marie Equi once remarked that as a young woman she had spurned the
interests of a young man, and she expressed little interest in a
heterosexual pairing or marriage.[3]
Equi’s lengthy relationship with Bessie Holcomb, from 1892 until 1901, was
dissimilar from the Boston Marriages adopted by upper-class women due to
Equi’s working-class background. Equi lived much of her adult life with
other women, but she was never a separatist. She treated male patients in
her medical practice, and she worked closely with men in many of her
political activities. She undertook the longest lesbian relationship of
her life in 1905 after meeting a younger woman, Harriet Speckart, the
niece of Olympia Brewing Company founder Leopold Schmidt. Speckart’s
family was vehemently opposed to the two women’s relationship, and
Speckart battled in the courts for years with her mother and brother to
receive her rightful inheritance. After ten years of sharing a life
together, Equi and Speckart adopted an infant girl, Mary, because Speckart
wanted to raise a child.[4]
As an adult, Mary recalled that she had called Speckart “ma” and Equi “da”
since everyone called Equi “Doc.” In later years the two women separated
but remained close until Speckart’s death in 1927.
Equi also became involved with other prominent, professional women.
When birth control advocate Margaret Sanger lectured in Portland in 1916,
Equi became smitten with her. She later wrote letters to Sanger that
referred to sexual intimacy between them during Sanger's earlier visit.[5][6][7]
Archivist Judith Schwartz has described Equi's letters to Sanger as "love
letters."[8][9]
For lengthy periods between 1926 and 1936 Equi invited the IWW leader
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn to live with her and help care for Equi’s
daughter. Flynn suffered serious health problems, including exhaustion
from overwork and depression from political setbacks. Equi, Flynn, and
Equi’s daughter lived at 1423 SW Hall in Portland’s westside
neighborhood—Gander Ridge of Goose Hollow at 1423 SW Hall.[25]
In 1930 Equi suffered a heart attack, sold her medical practice, and asked
Flynn to assist her for several more years. Finally Flynn retreated to the
East and resumed her work. She became a national leader of the Communist
Party USA.[26]
Equi led a quiet life following the departure of Flynn and then the
elopement of her daughter. Radical and labor leaders continued to revere
her for her courage and compassion during earlier decades; several visited
her at her house.
In 1950 Equi fractured her hip in a fall and spent a year at Good
Samaritan Hospital in Portland and then to a nursing home outside Portland
near the town of Gresham. She died at Fairlawn Hospital on July 13, 1952
at 80 years of age. Her obituaries ran in newspapers across the country,
including those in Portland, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and in the New
York Times. Equi’s activist friend
Julia Ruuttila described her as “a
woman of passion and conviction (and) a real friend of the have-nots of
this world.” She is buried alongside Harriet Speckart at Wilhelm's
Portland Memorial, Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon.[27]
My published books:
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Equi#References