Beth Elliott - The Outwords Archive

Beth at her high school graduation, 1968. She shares, “Within a year and a half, I would have a walking nervous breakdown, but within another six months the lightbulb went off over my head and I realized I was who I’d always believed myself to be, and started walking the path of transition.” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth at the Christopher Street West “proto-Pride” parade, Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. She holds a sign that reads “Revolution: It’s Just a Kiss Away” with interlocking female symbols. Beth shares that this photo was taken a few days after she left home suddenly, “under a cloud.” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) speaking at College of Marin featuring Beth Elliott, Karen Wells, and Jenny, Fall 1971, San Francisco, CA. Beth shares, “I’d been asked to run for Vice President of the San Francisco Chapter of Daughters of Bilitis. This was “The Next Generation” – after The Ladder had been swiped out from under the organization, and with Del [Martin] and Phyllis [Lyon] no longer actively involved. This was a speaking gig the two of us did at a local community college; Jenny is a woman who took up with us at that gig.” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth Elliott and her friend John Hall, 1975, Bernal Heights, San Francisco, LA. Beth shares, “This was my surgery year and this photo was taken in front of where I lived at the time. John Hall is a musician friend who engineered two new tracks for my Buried Treasure CD.“ Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth Elliot (in front) performing live on KSAN-FM, with Terry McGovern (in back left) and Fee Waybill (in back right), in front of an audience, 1977, San Francisco, CA. She was “trying to make it as an independent singer-songwriter without any support from the women’s music establishment.” Beth shares, “KSAN, the iconic free-form FM rock station, threw an on-air open mic outside their studios. I showed up and played my lesbian doo-wop song “Teen Love,” and DJ Terry McGovern and Fee Waybill of The Tubes, joined in as back-up dancers. Disco was beginning to eliminate opportunities for live musicians, so I had an extra set of challenges.” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth standing at first base, participating in the San Francisco Advertising Softball Women's All Stars team, 1978, San Francisco, CA. Beth shares, “By now, I realized I had to figure out how to navigate the larger, hetero world with my lesbian community options severely limited. A temp job placed me in the PR Department of the Foote, Cone & Belding/Honig ad agency, where I realized all the things my DOB friends and I had been doing to educate people about lesbianism were professional things for which there were names. I got asked to play softball with the women’s team, and got my first real coaching as an adult woman—and a spot on the San Francisco Women’s Ad League All Star team. It was a coming of age experience.” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Promotional photo for the Satin Food Stamps, an all-woman New Wave Band where Beth played bass, 1983. Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Promotional photo for the Bucktooth Varmints, a consciously queer “Dykeabilly Band” where Beth played bass, 2005. Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Another promotional photo for the Bucktooth Varmints, a consciously queer “Dykeabilly Band” where Beth played bass, 2010. Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth Elliott and Randy Wright at Santa’s Slave Auction, 2014, the World Famous Turf Club, Hayward, CA. Beth shares, “Randy Wright and I were the second pair of Alameda County Leather titleholders, and founding members of the Alameda County Leather Corps, which helped establish leather communities outside the big city of San Francisco. This is from the annual event we originated, Santa’s Slave Auction (later called Santa’s Service Auction).” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth at Stonehenge, 2014, Salisbury Plain, Whitshire, England. Beth shares, “I seek out sites like this, and chase total solar eclipses. The significance of this trip to England was that it was a “victory lap” after a long joint genealogy project. As a young adult, I’d reveled in a Celtic heritage I would see narrow before my very eyes when a cousin showed up and blew up my maternal Grandfather’s California reinvention story. The family had been in Tidewater Virginia for 200 years before he was born in Maryland, and was pretty seriously English. With three families in England that might have been ours, each one going back a far piece, a small group of cousins coalesced and spent years figuring out which was ours and how we connected to it. My sense of my origins had completely turned around halfway through my life, and making sense of it was quite the adventure.” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth wearing a hot pink mask that reads “Revelation 13: 16-17” with another mask featuring the California Bear flag collapsed around her neck, 2021. Beth shares “Continuing to question the dominant narrative, my response to forced masking was to cite the Bible verses about the Mark of the Beast … without which on one’s hand or forehead one might neither buy nor sell.” Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

The promotional cover for Elliott’s Buried Treasure CD. Photo courtesy of Beth Elliott.

Beth Elliott was born on November 26, 1950 in Vallejo, California. As a child, she experienced a feeling of being at odds with her gender. The strict uniform policies at her Catholic school, along with her family’s expectations of her as the firstborn son, just didn’t fit. Returning home after a long walk during her teen years, Beth experienced what she calls her first goddess vision: looking down at her chest and seeing breasts. All at once Beth remembered that she had once thought of herself as a girl. She now realized this thought could become true.

Around the same time, Beth began exploring San Francisco’s hippie culture, writing and performing folk music. She met a lot of hippie lesbians, and eventually decided to join the San Francisco chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). Acceptance as a trans woman came slowly, but with time, Beth found her place in the lesbian community. In 1971, she attended the Gay Women’s West Coast Conference. That same year, she was elected vice president of her DOB chapter.

In 1972, Beth applied to Stanford’s experimental sex reassignment surgery program, but Beth’s friends advised that her surgery wouldn’t be approved unless she presented herself as straight (i.e., attracted to men). When Beth tried to follow their advice, her DOB chapter, dominated at the time by lesbian separatists, kicked her out.

Undaunted, Beth refocused her energies in Los Angeles, helping to organize the 1973 West Coast Lesbian Conference at UCLA. The following year, Stanford finally approved Beth for surgery. When her insurance company refused to cover it, Beth took them to court and won. Following her surgery, Beth rejoined the world in the gender that had always felt correct for her, but without the support of the lesbian community that had previously provided so much support.

Beth then discovered the Neopagan community and spent some years living on Greenfield Ranch, a commune in Ukiah, CA. As the years passed, she began connecting with the bisexual community, where she felt more accepted. Eventually, she gradually re-engaged with the lesbian community, too. In the 1980s, Beth began writing for Telewoman, a lesbian newsletter; and in the 1990s, she worked with feminist academic Marcia Gallo on her thesis about the history of DOB.

Since then, Beth has released a CD and published a novel, while also working a day job and paying off her own house. Although she has acquired some of the trappings of the middle class, Beth proudly proclaims that in her heart, she will always be a hippie.

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