Women's History in the New Millennium

In our autumn 2003 issue, we reprinted Adrienne Rich's influential article, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," with commentaries from diverse perspectives by Joan Nestle, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Mattie Richardson, and Alison Kafer. Here, Rich responds to those reflections and contemplates what motivated her to write the piece and why she has come to have such vexed feelings about it. This dialogue reveals not only the wide-ranging impact of Rich's work but also the ways in which our scholarship takes on new meanings in changing contexts.