Remembering Honey Lee - The 7th Year

Honey Lee Cottrell January 16, 1946 - September 21, 2015

Lee Ray on Ocean Beach, 1970s

When I think of Honey Lee, I always see that scene from Casablanca in my mind: "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

This chapter requires my most personal disclaimers. I lived with Honey Lee for six years, and produced lesbian photography with her for almost every day of that period. When I had my first child in 1990, she became my daughter's godmother. I don't believe in God, but I have to admit I believe in Honey Lee, mythically as well as personally.

Honey Lee was my second butch girlfriend, but she was my first famous love, my first older woman lover . At the end of our first date, she dropped me off on the curb and said, "Bye--You're a nice kid." I was put out by that, but I was dutifully intimidated. Honey Lee had already been partners with a string of women who were like the Who's Who of Lesbian History. I looked up to all of them, from Melinda Gebbie, the virtuoso artist of the underground comix scene, to Tee Corinne, with whom Ho…