Gayla Turner
Growing up in Los Angeles, Gayla Turner discovered her identity through music, relationships, and the vibrant Southern California lesbian community, finding a sense of belonging within the lesbian community. Years later, while sorting through family belongings, Gayla uncovered a hidden collection of photographs from 1910 to 1922 that revealed an unexpected chapter in her grandmother’s life, including a photograph of two women inscribed “Our Wedding.” Her discovery led to years of research into a largely hidden network of independent women in rural Wisconsin and the ways they found community with one another more than a century ago. Gayla brought that forgotten history to life in her book Don’t You Dare, weaving her grandmother’s remarkable story with a deeply personal exploration of queer history, family, and the lives that earlier generations were forced to keep hidden.