10. Gay Liberation

1989 Mary Jo Godges

Mary Jo Godges upon winning first place in a women’s surfing competition
at San Onofre State Beach, California, in 1989.

 

MARY JO FINDS NIRVANA in the radio waves and the ocean waves, but the archetypal California surfer girl cannot imagine where she might belong beyond the surf. She stumbles upon a college radio station that drives her deep into the musical underground, where she discovers her identity and a community among social outcasts. In the early 1980s, she becomes the most public figure in the family, but she keeps her private life invisible. Her invisibility is the price of her freedom.