Northampton, USA
Introduction
I'd been intrigued with Northampton, Massachusetts since I saw the town referred to as "Lesbianville, USA" in the American tabloid magazine, The National Enquirer, when I was a teenager in the late 1980s. In the article Northampton was said to have the highest lesbian population, per capita, of any town or city in the States, so I knew I'd have to check it out. In the end it took me almost twenty years to get there, and boy do I wish I'd visited sooner!
Today Northampton, referred to by locals as NoHo, is probably best known for being the place where lesbian icon, Rachel Maddow, began her media career. While working at a coffee shop in town she was hired by the local radio station to do news and commentary, and the rest, as they say, is history (for all of you visitors not from North America, Maddow is the first out-lesbian on American television to host her own mainstream political analysis show. She's amazing!) Other inspirational women like aviator Amelia Earhart and Alison Bechdel, author of Dykes to Watch Out For, have also lived here.
Northampton is a tiny town, with two main streets and about 30,000 residents, but you'll probably see more lesbians walking around here than you would on an average day in Chicago, Paris or Sydney. Truly, they're everywhere! So how did this happen? There's no simple answer, but there are a few factors that could help explain things. First off, Northampton is home to Smith College, America's largest liberal arts college for women (Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. magazine, poet Sylvia Plath of The Bell Jar fame and Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, are among Smith's most distinguished alums). And just a few miles away you'll also find Mount Holyoke College, which only admits women as well. Massachusetts is also one of the most liberal states in America, and the first of the only two states to make gay marriage legal (the other is Connecticut). The town has an openly lesbian mayor, its own LGBT newspaper run by two lesbians, a long-standing queer bookstore/gift shop (how many big cities can't even say that anymore???) and a number of lesbian-owned businesses.
More than a lesbian town though, Northampton is also a beautiful college town with great shops, excellent restaurants, nearby hiking trails, and several first-rate concert venues. This is the kind of place you visit when you want to escape the big city and have a laid-back, easy getaway. Located just a few hours from Boston, you could easily visit both of these destinations for a New England vacation.
I live in Northampton and it truely is lesbian heaven! Noho is very family-friendly, full of people of all ages, and very safe. I often spend warm summer evenings walking around the downtown strip, stopping for coffee, window shopping, and listening to the street musicians. The town is very alive and vibrant when college is in session, but is also full of life when the students go home. There is a great gay nightclub, awesome restruants and bars of every flavor, and easy access to nature. Definitely worth a visit- maybe worth staying forever!
Melissa on Feb 11, 2009
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