Breeding, Mariah Susan

Interviewer

Wendy Chapkis PhD, University of Southern MaineFollow

Files

Description

In this interview, Breeding, a 75-year-old queer woman, explores questions of identity, culture, and activism. Breeding was born in New Hampshire, grew up in Ohio, and moved back to the East Coast as a teenager. She moved to Maine at 21, living in Ogunquit and Portland. Breeding discusses her family's background, including her parents' contrasting social classes, and the importance of a Unitarian Universalist group in creating early community. An important subject in the interview is Breeding’s first significant relationship with astrologer Wendy Ashley in Ogunquit and Portland, Maine. She discuses the complex bisexual and polyamorous culture of the 1970s, and describes early gay activism in Southern Maine in the form of women’s groups and mixed gender organizing (including fighting for women workers at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House). She discusses the role of social justice movements in her life, emphasizes the need for connection with nature and its influence on activism, and insists on the importance of listening to diverse voices and the necessity of tackling oppressive structures in society.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For more information about the Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project, please contact Dr. Wendy Chapkis.

Publication Date

10-5-2025

Publisher

University of Southern Maine

City

Portalnd, Maine

Keywords

LGBTQ+; Queer; Lesbian; Bisexual; Childhood; Family Dynamics; Social Class; Activism; Coming Out; Unitarian Universalist Fellowship; Pantheist; Freedom and Justice; Civil Rights Movement; HIV/AIDS; Intersectionality; Polyamory; Lesbian History; Gender Identity; Cultural Movement; Nature Connection; Personal Growth; Parental Custody; Historical Context; Community Building; New Hampshire; Ohio; Ogunquit, Maine; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; New Mexico; The Emote Club; New World Coffeehouse; Astrology; Wendy Ashley; Stan Fortuna; Steve Bull; Peter Prizer; Lesbian Consciousness Raising Group; Brunswick Women’s Center; Harriet Beecher Stowe House; American Bicentennial Freedom Train; Women’s Land; Penobscot poet Sipsis.

Disciplines

History of Gender | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Oral History | Women's Studies

Recommended Citation

Chapkis, Wendy PhD, "Breeding, Mariah Susan" (2025). Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection. 146.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/146

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.