Introduction

SUMMARY In this introduction to the Oswald volume, it is argued that there is no politically correct way to design lesbian ritual. Lesbians create their own and participate in rituals that may be punctuated with traditional family of origin, religious, and cultural symbols as well as symbols and practices drawn from lesbian cultures. Lesbians, like everyone else, need to review their ritual lives, to construct rituals that are empowering rather than inhibiting or bereft of meaning, and to delete those that do not express their meanings. The authors herein richly describe and deconstruct a range of rituals participated in by lesbians, speculating on the ways they may be transforming and the ways they may be disaffirming.