Elaine's Mini-MiniEssay:
On LeatherDyke.com being a website for dykes.

I believe that sexual-attraction-identity (homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, and all the betweenish spots), much like gender ID, can be plotted along a spectrum.

I believe it is the right of owners of private spaces (paid for in hosting and bandwidth fees, and time, and skill) to pick where to draw the line for membership criteria.

For the purposes of this site (not some other site, not your own community site, not your life, your club, the government, or any other organization), we define "dyke" as a homosexual woman.

Further, rather redundantly, we define a homosexual woman as: a woman who has sex / emotional relationships with other women, and who does not have them with men.

Why?

It is my considered opinion that it is as valuable for dykes to have their own space as it is for queers to have a queer-only space, women to have women-only space, and for leatherfolk to have kinky space, and so on. There is a great deal of benefit to having an impression of being surrounded by others with not only similar interests, but also living in similar paradigms.

When Spike and I started the site last year, we merged with the venerable (in internet years) DYKE mailing list, started 1996-ish, and became co-mods for the list, and for the new site. We chose where we'd focus our volunteer energies. We have put a huge amount of work into LeatherDyke.Com, and we have a lot of smart, active members who appreciate that dyke-only space.

-Elaine Miller

December 6^th, 2004