Oral history interview with Linda Markin

Oral history interview with Linda Markin

Linda Markin describes her family background in Brighton, New York with its large Jewish population. She was in the second class of women to graduate from Dartmouth College, and discusses hostility that was directed toward women students. She describes her increasing politicization and being influenced by the feminist orientation of many women professors, by her own readings of feminist and lesbian literature, and by guest speakers. Upon graduating in 1977, she came out to her family and through connections found a job and moved to Plainfield, Vermont. She describes the discrimination she experienced in employment and housing, and her increasing sense of being outside of the mainstream, but also that she found a welcoming "edge of society" countercultural community. She describes a controversy in 1978 regarding a "women's only" space in Montpelier, Vermont, where she and her partner Marie met, and their move to Roxbury, Vermont. She speaks of challenges in raising Marie's four children as a lesbian couple, one son's story about "straightening up" when his friends visited, and involvement in the 1998-2000 statewide civil union discussion.

11 December 2015

AudioFile1970s-40

MP3

Audio FIles

Washington County (Vt.)

Permission to publish material from the Vermont 1970s Counterculture Project must be obtained from the Vermont Historical Society.

Rowell, Leslie

Markin, Linda, 1955-

Hardwick (Vt.)

1 hr., 12 min., 12 sec.

Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4209