Archivist Judith Schwartz has described Equi's letters to Sanger as "love letters." Įqui's intimate relationships with Holcomb in the 1890s and with Speckart in the early 1900s established her as the first publicly known lesbian on the U.S. She later wrote letters to Sanger that referred to sexual intimacy between them during Sanger's earlier visit. When birth control advocate Margaret Sanger lectured in Portland in 1916, Equi became smitten with her.
HOLCOMBE MATHLETE OREGON CITY PROFESSIONAL
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.Įqui also became involved with other prominent, professional women. After ten years of sharing a life together, Equi and Speckart adopted an infant girl, Mary, because Speckart wanted to raise a child.
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. 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. She treated male patients in her medical practice, and she worked closely with men in many of her political activities. Equi lived much of her adult life with other women, but she was never a separatist. 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. 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.
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. Instead in some spheres of society in the United States, people recognized "romantic friendships" among women. In the late 19th century, little was known or publicly discussed about same-sex affairs between women. In 1892 Equi escaped a grim future in the mills and joined her high school girlfriend, Bessie Holcomb, on an Oregon homestead along the Columbia River. She attended New Bedford High School for one year before dropping out to work in a textile mill to support herself. She was born the fifth child and fifth daughter in a large working-class family in New Bedford, the former whaling capital of the world that became a textile manufacturing powerhouse during Equi's early years. She was the only known lesbian and radical to be incarcerated at the prison.Įqui was the daughter of John Equi, an Italian immigrant, and Sarah Mullins, an Irish immigrant. She was sentenced to a three-year term at San Quentin State Prison. In 1918, Equi was convicted under the Sedition Act for speaking against U.S. For her radical politics and same-sex relations, Equi battled discrimination and harassment. The two women adopted an infant and raised the child in an early example of same-sex parenting in the United States. After being clubbed by a policeman in a 1913 workers' strike, Equi aligned herself with anarchists and the radical labor movement.Įqui was a lesbian who maintained a primary relationship with Harriet Frances Speckart (1883 - May 15, 1927) for more than a decade. She became a political activist and advocated civic and economic reforms, including women's right to vote and an eight-hour workday. She regularly provided birth control information and abortions at a time when both were illegal. Marie Equi (Ap– July 13, 1952) was an early American medical doctor in the American West devoted to providing care to working-class and poor patients.
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