Amy Stamm was interviewed by Lizbeth Oquita on April 17, 2021 via Zoom Platform.

Narrator:

Amy Stamm was born August 27, 1964 in New York, New York. She lived there for five years and eventually moved to Madison, Connecticut because her father got a new job in Connecticut. After high school, Amy moved to Amherst, MA to attend Amherst College which at the time was a conservative and sexist campus just one year after closing its fraternities. To escape that, Amy spent a semester at Hampshire College and eventually decided to transfer there. In the early 90’s she began queer organizing in Western Mass. Stamm became involved in local chapters of ACT UP and Queer Nation and began an effort to establish a queer community center
in Northampton. She also worked with community members to organize a community vote in 1992 which would determine if bisexuals should be included in the Lesbian and Gay Liberation March. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of including bisexuals and others. Stamm lived in Northampton for quite some time. Then in 1994, along with her girlfriend Alisa, she moved to Santa Cruz, CA. There, she had been accepted into the cultural anthropology program at the University of California. In 1998, Amy and Alisa moved to Tel Aviv, Israel, where Amy conducted research on transnational adoption in Israeli Jewish families. When Amy and Alisa returned to the United States, they moved back to Northampton, and then Leeds, MA.

Abstract:
In this interview, Stamm reflects upon her experiences navigating her sexuality and gender in her teenage years, as well as the formative impact Rowe Camp had on her identity. Stamm discusses her experiences organzing in Western Mass during her early adulthood, spefically with
ACT UP and Queer Nation Western Mass. She reflects on the Lesbian and Gay March, now called Noho Pride, and the importance of inclusion and of avoiding essentialist perspectives. She also recalls her experience as a core organizer in the Bisexual Inclusion Vote of 1992. Critical of separatism and assimilation, Stamm provides insight into places where the Lesbian and Gay Movement in Western Mass could have done better.

Interviewer:
Lizbeth Oquita is a member of Smith College class of 2022. They are a double-major in Government and Study of Women and Gender.