Outliers and Outlaws

A belated thank you to , Mayor Beach Pace, and the Hillsboro Film Festival for hosting and Outliers and Outlaws! The audience was truly delightful and the cookies were divine.

For Le***an Visibility Week, we’re counting down to the streaming launch of Outliers and Outlaws—Sunday, April 26—by sharing the stories of our participants. Today, we celebrate Linda McIntosh and Rakar West.
Linda McIntosh arrived in Eugene in 1968 and helped quite literally build the foundations of le***an community. As the founder of Crescent Construction—the first collectively owned, women-run contracting business in Oregon—she turned the idea of le***an space into physical reality, while also helping launch the city’s first martial arts and women’s self-defense collective.

Rakar West’s path brought her from the segregated South to Eugene, where she found purpose and community at the Starflower Cooperative. From warehouse work to driving delivery trucks across the West Coast, she was part of a network of women reshaping labor, ownership, and daily life. Along the way, she built a decades-long partnership and a life rooted in resilience, connection, and change.

Together, Linda and Rakar reflect the ingenuity, determination, and collective spirit that helped define Eugene’s le***an community—and its lasting impact.

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This Le***an Visibility Week, we celebrate Outliers and Outlaws participants and count down to the world-wide streaming launch on Sunday April 26th. Today, we honor Susie Grimes.

Susie was born in Dayton, Ohio where she departed from her family’s cultural norms by becoming a hippie. One year out of high school, she moved to Eugene where she found and joined Full Moon Rising, an all-women’s tree planting crew that spent months away in the forests of Oregon, replanting clear cuts. While doing forest work, Susie endured a life-threatening injury that resulted in a spinal cord injury. A lifelong athlete, Susie found an outlet playing women’s wheelchair basketball, a sport in which she ultimately won gold and silver medals in the Paralympic Games. As part of Mobility International USA (MIUSA) Susie traveled to 15 countries doing advocacy work for disability rights. In 2025, Susie was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

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This Le***an Visibility Week, we celebrate Outliers and Outlaws participants while approaching the world-wide streaming launch this Sunday April 26th. Today, we honor a creative and vibrant couple, Janice and Ginger.

Janice Baker identified as a feminist in the mid-1980s, and traveled to southern Oregon to practice photography with Ruth and Jean Mountaingrove on their communal le***an land. Later, Janice moved to WomanShare in southern Oregon, where she met her future girlfriend and life-partner, Ginger Newman. Ginger had moved to San Francisco and then to southern Oregon from Atlanta where she had trained as a nurse. In her 40’s, Ginger began working at a family practice clinic in Eugene to help care for women seeking abortions. They both left Eugene for Tieton, Washington to live in artful, diverse community. Follow Janice’s art practice at and through her Substack.

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For Le***an Visibility Week, we celebrate Outliers and Outlaws participants as we count down to the world-wide streaming launch of the documentary on Sunday April 26th. Today, we honor a loving and powerful couple, Janet and Evelyn.

Janet Anderson was born in 1947 in Minnesota. She first encountered le***anism when she discovered “friends” sleeping in same bed, and thought, “Le***ans! What a good idea!” In Eugene, Janet was involved in the group Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament. At a time when most were afraid “the bomb” would be dropped, Janet led fifteen trips to the Soviet Union, fueling person-to-person diplomacy.

Evelyn Anderton (1946-2023), grew up in Atherton, California and moved to Eugene in 1977 where she met Janet Anderson through Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament. Evelyn’s legacy in Eugene spanned nearly five decades of visionary leadership and care—directing Womenspace, founding the Domestic Violence Council, and reshaping how Oregon responds to survivors of domestic violence. A lifelong feminist and organizer, she brought compassion, humor, and fierce conviction to every space she entered.

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Outliers and Outlaws streaming release this Sunday! Link in bio.

Outliers and Outlaws: The Eugene Le***an History Project is celebrating Le***an Visibility Week all week long! Our big finale will be the streaming release of our documentary on Vimeo OnDemand on Sunday, April 26th. Link in bio.

A new bookstore in Eugene, Oregon: Outliers Books!

New chapter for a longtime Eugene bookshop: Black Sun will be renamed Outliers Peter Ogura, the owner and operator of Black Sun Books in South Eugene, is retiring after decades at the helm of the independent bookstore. New owner Kel Weinhold has wanted to buy the store for around 20 years.

ARCATA, CA! Outliers and Outlaws plays Monday March 9th .arts in the Zero to Fierce Festival 🎬📽️ Check out the Lunchbox program prior, with a talk on Ruth Mountaingrove, The Blatant Image and Le***an Feminist Photography at Rootworks Women’s Land. Talk at 12pm, Film at 7pm ***ans 🌲🚌

Thank you everyone for supporting, sharing, watching and applauding OUTLIERS AND OUTLAWS! One year ago, we made our world premiere to an audience of nearly 400 folks at QDoc Film Festival 🥳 This year, we enjoyed festival and community screenings, talks, and potlucks around the US, in England, France and Canada 🌲🚌

Eugene le***ans featured in our film and who those who live / lived this story, engaged audiences. We partnered with Equal Rights Oregon, Oregon Q***r History Collective, and many more community partners who connected with you all at the theater.

And now, we are thrilled to announce the release of Outliers and Outlaws on GOOD DOCS 📺🌈 Good Docs sells and licenses Outliers and Outlaws in educational settings, to non-profits, libraries, community groups and more. A link to their website is in the comments below. Book your own screenings and share the history of this le***an migration! DVDs and library streaming are coming soon. We will announce that here and in our newsletter.

Thank you again for this year. Coming together as q***r people is vital and we are honored that Outliers and Outlaws has been bringing you all together 🌲🌲🌲🌲💚💚💚

Los Angeles! Please join us for a screening of Outliers and Outlaws on Sunday October 26th at 7pm hosted by CIRCA - the Q***r Histories festival with the One Institute at the LA LGBT Center's Renberg Theater (1125 N. McCadden Place)

Director Courtney Hermann and Producer Judith Raiskin will be in attendance to answer questions after the screening and talk about this incredible history of the le***an migration to Eugene Oregon. Outliers and Outlaws screens with Open Captions.

Tickets and information here:

Outliers and Outlaws - Circa The documentary film Outliers and Outlaws uncovers the history of a large and vibrant le***an community in Eugene, Oregon. The hundreds of le***ans who migrated to this small town from the 1960s-1990s candidly share stories about the power of courageous and creative world-building. Intimate portrait...