Michael Helquist
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Change Your Day

A revitalized blog with one mission: to present a moment that jolts your day, triggers new thinking, gets you through traffic tangles, and relieves job stress. Or, more prosaically, accompanies you through the early miles of bike touring through France and Italy. Wherever you are, I aim to change your day.

Credit to @illuminatethearts for lighting the skies from the Ferry Building down Market Street. 

Summer 2016 Author Events – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Eugene

5/23/2016

 
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​The MARIE EQUI West Coast book tour continues this summer with several appearances, starting in Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 31 and continuing through a stop in Eugene, Oregon on August 6th.
 
May 31, Tuesday, 7pm at Book Soup Bookstore in West Hollywood, 8818 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood. “The West Coast Lesbian You’ve Never Heard Of,” an author talk with slides. Books available for purchasing and signing.

June 27, Monday, 9am, live broadcast on the “Old Mole Variety Hour,” KBOO Radio  90.7 FM in Portland. Helquist will discuss the 100th anniversary of  the arrest in Portland of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger and lesbian activist Marie Equi for distributing a birth control how-to guide. The host of the program is Laurie Mercier.

June 27, Monday, 7p at Kennedy History Pub, McMenamin’s in Portland, 5736 NE 33rd Avenue. Titled “Portland to the Rescue: The Rose City Rushes to 1906 Stricken San Francisco,” the talk with slides is free and open to the public. Doors at 6pm, event at 7pm. Books available for purchase and signing.
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June 28, Tuesday, 1:30 – 2:30 pm at the Eastside Federal Complex in Portland. Book talk with slides. The US Fish & Wildlife Services and the Bonneville Power Administration will co-host the event in recognition of LGBT Pride Month. Attendance is limited to federal employees. All federal employees in the Portland district are welcome. Books available for purchase and signing.
 
June 29, Wednesday, 11 am, downtown Portland, the Birth Control Brigade, an ad-hoc group of historians and reproductive justice activists, will present a street theater re-enactment of the arrest of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger and lesbian activist Marie Equi one hundred years on this day. Details to be announced.
 
June 29, Wednesday, evening, a special LGLBT Pride event in north Portland, location to be announced. Free and open to the public. Books available for purchase and signing.
 
Mid-July (date & details to be announced), Mechanics Institute, 57 Post Street, San Francisco.  a talk with slides about War and Disaster Preparedness, a centennial commemoration of the 1916 Preparedness Day Parades in Portland and San Francisco. Books available for purchase and signing.
 
August 6, Saturday, afternoon (TBA), Eugene Public Library, Eugene, Oregon. Book talk with slides. Free and open to the public. Books available for purchase and signing.

Marie Equi Author Receives Best Article Award from Oregon Historical Quarterly

5/23/2016

 
On May 21 Michael Helquist, author of the new biography MARIE EQUI, Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions, received the 2016 Joel Palmer Award, from the Oregon Historical Quarterly for the best article published in the previous year. Eliza Canty-Jones, editor of the quarterly, presented the award and noted that Helquist managed to complete and submit his contribution while also finalizing his biography. She also thanked Helquist for trusting the quarterly with his excellent examination of the early history of abortion prosecutions in Portland, Oregon. The article, “”Criminal Operations”: The First Fifty Years of Abortion Trials in Portland, Oregon,” appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of the quarterly and is available in print through the Oregon Historical Society and at http://goo.gl/DBHLBT. The annual prize carries with it a $300 award which was awarded to Helquist – along with framed acknowledgement -- during the annual meeting of the Oregon Historical Society in Portland.  
 
“Criminal Operations” presents original research that documents every abortion trial conducted in Portland and reported in the Oregonian from 1870-1920 (27 in all). Helquist’s study reveals two significant factors that hindered prosecutions and thwarted convictions: a lack of sufficient evidence peculiar to abortion cases and the ambiguities of the abortion law itself. Prosecutors obtained convictions in only 7 of the 27 cases. The research also reveals that the few successful prosecutions also created an opportunity for abortion providers to continue their work with minimal concern for legal difficulties.
 
Helquist remarked in an interview, “Oregon’s anti-abortion law thrust into the public realm an inherently private and personal matter involving a woman and her provider. It was seldom a good mix for anyone involved.” He noted that physicians were reluctant to cooperate with the law, concerned with their professional prerogatives; prosecutors wrestled with the “intent” of providers and of patients; and women feared the public humiliation that might result from a trial.
 
One of the few doctors to provide abortions in Portland was Marie Equi, whose skill and discretion prompted other doctors to refer their patients to her (and allow her to assume the risk). Oregon State University Press published Helquist’s biography of Equi, “Marie Equi, Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions,” in September 2015. Her efforts for women’s rights and the struggle to obtain reproductive services are featured in the biography. The American Library Association named Marie Equi a 2016 Stonewall Honor Book for Non Fiction.
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Michael with Janet Taylor, OHS President, (far left) and Molly Palmer Spencer, an ancestor of Joel Palmer, the Oregon pioneer for whom the award is named.
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"We're Being Erased, We're Being Invisibilized"

5/18/2016

 
Lesbians -- and especially older lesbians -- who attend my book readings for Marie Equi, Radical Politics and Outlaw Passions often remark afterwards, "Thank you so much for doing this research and for telling her story." It's one of the most rewarding responses I receive.

The disproportionate lack of lesbians in our cultural and political environment, in our regional and national histories,and in our school curriculum represents a challenge to everyone who seeks an inclusive, diverse, and representative national narrative.

This article from the website NOTCHES gives voice to the concerns and anguish of many older lesbian-feminists: "We're being erased! We're being invisibilized."

This is from a report from the "Gay American History @ 40" conference convened earlier this month in New York. 
Note this comment also: 
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"Who can deny the disproportionate attention that LGBTQ history has given to gay men versus lesbians?" "Notably, as (historian) John D’Emilio pointed out in a discussion following the panel, the category of gay men does not seem to be overshadowed by the same concern over looming extinction. A structural dynamic specific to women and to lesbians is at work."​
Fortunately, there are many, many pioneers trying to reset the balance. Their efforts appear in high schools, community colleges, universities, historical societies, publishing houses, and in pop culture (when it doesn't focus only on celebrities). Thank you to all.

    Michael Helquist

    Author Historian Activist 

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