![]() ![]() ![]() She looks back on those days with pride, remembering fearless moves such as the release of a 1977 “Lesbian Concentrate” compilation, in response to an anti-gay campaign by the singer Anita Bryant. As Cris Williamson, a founding member who still performs with Olivia, remembers, at the time “lesbians were losing their jobs, their children, their incomes”. In the late 80s, Dlugacz was on the cusp of shutting down Olivia Records, the California-based independent label she’d co-founded with a collective of nine other radical lesbians, which boldly celebrated lesbian relationships at a time when mothers risked losing custody of their children by coming out. Such joyful moments very nearly didn’t happen. Last year, Olivia Travel ran more than 30 trips, including to a resort on Providenciales, in the Turks and Caicos archipelago, and from Berlin to Budapest on a riverboat cruise. “The most important thing Olivia does is create an environment where women come and feel stronger when they leave,” says Judy Dlugacz, president of Olivia Travel, who’s been there since the beginning. The entire ship or resort is hired out for each trip, a strategy intended to ensure guests feel free to be themselves. The company offers a range of all-inclusive vacations, from cruises carrying as many as 1,400 guests to small riverboats, alongside resorts and safaris. Since that first cruise in 1990, a four-night stay in the Bahamas, Olivia has established itself as one of the leaders in the LGBTQ+ travel industry. ![]() “It was like spring break for women … I was so drunk. “I was like: ‘Well, I’m doing these Olivia trips, I might as well just be who I am.’” She recalls that raucous-sounding, first trip to an all-inclusive resort in Cancun, Mexico, in 2010. “It definitely helped to make me more open about who I am because I wasn’t that open before,” says Yashere. Performing with Olivia helped the comedian Gina Yashere to publicly come out. (Shands has also officiated a wedding for a couple who met on an Olivia cruise.) “She had on a cute little bathing suit.” The two talked for an hour in the pool, with Butler saying: “It was a real connection.” They are now married and live in Maryland. “It was almost like a cartoon character where your eyes go ‘boing!’” says Shands, who also set up Olivia’s dedicated programs for women of colour. In 2015, Donna Shands was working for Olivia when she saw a guest, Cassandra Butler, walking alongside the pool. Photograph: Courtesy of Olivia TravelĪlong the way Olivia Travel has birthed long friendships and, naturally, plenty of romance. ![]()
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