In real life, lesbian gym teachers may find their livelihood threatened because of their sexual orientation, a predicament explored in depth in this 1990 dissertation. The butch gym teacher type has found its way into fiction and song, most memorably in lesbian singer Meg Christian’s “ Ode to a Gym Teacher ” (which is also included in MGH ’s Meg Christian episode ). Northrop’s story was featured in the original edition of the Making Gay History book in a chapter titled “The Radical Debutante.”Īfter abandoning her career in network television news, Northrop fantasized about becoming a gym teacher-a beloved lesbian stereotype that’s been parodied by lesbian comedians like Rosie O’Donnell and Jane Lynch and satirized for its ubiquity. To learn more about Ann Northrop, read this bio and watch her oral history recorded in 2003 as part of the ACT UP Oral History Project. In this episode, she discusses her most dramatic ACT UP arrest, her work as an AIDS education advocate, her blue-blooded upbringing, and the lure of Angie Dickinson.
Fierce and unflappable, veteran journalist Ann Northrop is a natural activist.
