Let’s begin with a passage from our topic today: She broke off abruptly, and they stared at each other. ‘Do you know what you’re saying?’ Angela whispered. And Stephen answered: ‘I know that I love you, and that nothing else matters in the world.’ Then, perhaps because of that glamorous evening, with its spirit of queer, unearthly adventure, with its urge to strange, unendurable sweetness, Angela moved a step nearer to Stephen, then another, until their hands were touching. And all that she was, and all that she had been and would be again, perhaps even tomorrow, was fused at that moment into one mighty impulse, one imperative need, and that need was Stephen. Stephen’s need was now hers, by sheer force of its blind and uncomprehending will to appeasement. Then Stephen took Angela into her arms, and she kissed her full on the lips, as a lover. [1] A RAG COPY OF THE WELL OF LONELINESS Today we are covering possibly the most well known Lesbian novel of all time, The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. This episode was previously scheduled to drop during Lesbian Visibility week which runs the 20th-26th of April. Ending with the original Lesbian Day of Visibility on April 26th. Which, coincidentally is when Evan married his favorite Lesbian, Samantha Taylor. So though we’re a little late, today we are spreading awareness and visibility of lesbians all around the world. And there is no better way to do so than to use the first, modern, instrument used to bring widespread visibility to Lesbians.  Radclyffe Hall’s infamous novel has been steeped in controversy and criticism since it’s first publication 92 years ago. The story is based on a masculine or butch lesbian named Stephen. Who is born into immense wealth and privilege, yet feels like a constant outsider to the world around her. Stephen comes of age grappling with the parts of her that are different. But is encouraged by her father to embrace her boyish side. She takes up riding, fencing, and lifting weights; much to the dismay of her mother and her neighbors. In addition, she rejects the feminine attire of the day instead preferring a man’s shirt and tie paired with a short straight skirt. Which was the preferred style of many lesbians during the mid-1900s, and often used as a code to signify their sexual leanings. Along the way, Stephen also develops crushes on different women and falls deeply in love with a few. Including an older, married woman who later outs Stephen to save her own self. Later, Stephen moves to Paris where she becomes a celebrated author and settles down with a beautiful young girl named Mary. They are happy for many years and build a family with their little dog, David. Even forming a troop of other queer friends who become their chosen family. But tragedy strikes and leaves poor Stephen alone at the end, begging God for the right to exist. The final lines end as such: ‘God,’ she gasped, we believe; we have told You we believe…We have not denied You, then rise up and defend us. Acknowledge us, oh God, before the whole world. Give us also the right to our existence!’ [1] The book was a loose metaphor for Hall’s own life. As she too was an open butch lesbian who went by the preferred name of John in private settings. The hope was to bring awareness to the ‘inverts’ of the world. This was an old term that implied that a person attracted to the same sex did so because they were actually the opposite sex. Or perhaps, they embodied both sexes. The theory of sexual inversion was first developed by notorious sexologist Havelock Ellis and further expanded up by Richard von Kraft-Ebbing and Karl Heinrich Ulrich.