“You have come a long way baby… To get where you’ve got to today.”
Though the line has its beginnings in a time when “baby” was rooted in a world still dominated by chauvinistic and homopho-bic ideologies, it is no less relevant an idiom when it comes to expressing a long, hard-won fight for acceptance, both individual and societal, for self-expression and the freedom to love who you love. “Baby” has earned the right to a triumphant place in the sun and a celebration of every version of the female race.
Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend is arguably one of the best places for women and lesbians to celebrate and enjoy those hard-fought freedoms, and has been for the last 25 years. One of the earliest promoters, Mariah Hanson, offered her insights about those changes: “Our community has become very hip and accepting and this attitude creates a well-rounded atmosphere in which people from all over the country can come together and define themselves, not by their similarities alone, but by their differences too. And that’s what makes life interesting. What can we learn from each other? How are we different? I love hearing stories of women who meet every year at The Dinah for their annual sojourn. They made friends years ago, but live in all different parts of the world and The Dinah serves as the common ground on which they come together to celebrate their lives.”