“A Secret in Plain Sight”: Origin Stories From the Amy Morris Homans Cotillion

Publication Date

8-1-2024

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Kinesiology Review

Volume

13

Issue

3

DOI

10.1123/kr.2024-0027

First Page

319

Last Page

329

Abstract

The story of the Amy Morris Homans Cotillion is little known outside the circles of those who founded and attended the event. In this article, we detail the origins of the Cotillion from its inception in 1982 to its final iteration in 2014. This underground social event provided a safe space for women to connect and create a lesbian community of joyful sisterhood with long-lasting professional and personal relationships. At its peak, the Cotillion gathered hundreds of women, inviting them to drink, dance, and dream of a better world. We place the Cotillion in the context of the historical development of women’s physical education and the field of kinesiology and use oral-history interviews with women who founded, organized, and regularly attended the Cotillion to create a narrative of the origins of this event.

Keywords

AAHPERD, homophobia, lesbian community, physical education

Department

Kinesiology

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