I have been going to DINAH weekend for over twenty five years now. So this photo is still mind blowing to me on some level. You see, when women used to go to Palm Springs for DINAH weekend they really went to the actual Dinah Shore Golf Tournament. Back then, if you didn't know a lesbian with a condo in Palm Springs, you could not go to a women's party in the desert. I remember many years like this. Those years seemed extra dark on those desert nights. Slowly, it seemed, public dances for women started happening more and more. Country western dancing and Kate Clinton doing comedy at The Desert Palms Inn. Gay bars would have women's night just on that particular weekend. CC Construction, Daddy Warbucks, and others did this. A party for women in an airplane hanger at the Palms Springs Airport. Then, for the first time, in a big hotel, I stood starring as an escalator took me down into room with 500 lesbians. I was stunned. Was this a dream? Wait, yes in fact this was an actual dream I had had many times. Now it was really happening. It seemed everyone around me was feeling the same way. I remember all of us walking around like people in a dark room trying to decide if they could believe their own eyes. I will always be grateful to both Club Skirts and Girl Bar for that night. I knew things were changing after that. A few years later I would hear young women in the hotel lobby say, "Golf tournament?, where's the field?" I knew the tournament was a thing of the past for non-golfer dykes. Lipstick lesbians seemed like they first came out at these events. They were all the rage through the 90's. It was about this time that a straight friend told me, "Hey it's really chic to be a lesbian now!"
If you have memories of DINAH weekend you'd like to share with us, please email us at
mazerarchives@earthlink.net
