Based on first-person interviews and lesbian archival documents, this thesis explores the stories of eleven white, middle-class, self-identified lesbians who were born between 1949 and 1960 and who come of age beginning in the 1970s. It traces their life trajectories and examines such themes as the coming out process as it related to family, religion, and other life events; the cultural and political environment that influenced them; their involvement in various forms of lesbian feminist political activism; their varied professional contributions, and their reflections on the future of “the lesbian” as an embodied gendered, sexual, and political identity. In documenting their narratives, my aim is to add their voices and their experiences of struggle, survival, and accomplishment to the Canadian historical canon. / Graduate / 0334 / jantrainor2010@gmail.com