What is a Labrys?

As you can see from our artwork, it's a massive, intimidating axe-like object. So how is it connected to us?

Women once claimed the labrys not as a weapon, but rather as a symbol of unity and recognition. It was a sign of strength and power in matriarchal communities that thrived in Egypt and the Mediterranean from prehistoric ages until the Renaissance. In these tribes, ruled by queens and priestesses, women were the heads of families, and inheritance was passed from mother to daughter. The goddess they worshipped, the source of all life, personified Mother Earth. Before the genocide that foreign invasion brought, these matrilineal families built their own history. They had a clear sense of who they were and where they belonged.

Now we, the descendents of these "lost tribes" scattered throughout the world, strive to piece together our lives from two sometimes conflicting sources: who we are, and who mainstream society thinks we are. And it will take reuniting the tribe for us to become whole. From our ancestors, we find validation that a woman loving another woman is not a malfunction of our brains but is instead a common trait of our tribe. This is what binds us, and by coming together, the lesbian community will find understanding and acceptance.

History has not always been kind to us. During World War II, the Nazis branded "not so feminine women" with a black triangle and tortured them in horrible ways. This triangle has become our badge, a way to pay homage to those martyrs and to show society that we are proud of who we are, despite oppression.

These symbols offer us hope. Together, they remind us that our kind - and our community - can flourish. It is in this spirit of unity that we give back to the tribe, in honor of our heritage,

Labrys Atlanta.

We do support our own.
Maria Rivers, publisher