Frances Stevens

Franco Stevens founded Curve magazine, the most successful lesbian magazine in the world. Growing up, Franco never saw any representation of queer women – she didn’t even know a woman could be gay. When she realized she was a lesbian, it changed the course of her life. In 1990, Franco created a safe place for lesbians through the magazine, raising lesbian visibility in a way that connected the community, positioned the lesbian market for advertisers, helped the community accept femme-identifying lesbians, changed the way the mainstream sees lesbians, highlighted the transgender experience, brought attention to lesbian families, raised awareness of attacks on LGBTQ rights, and amplified the work of queer women activists. The magazine covers news, politics, entertainment, pop culture, style, and travel from a lesbian perspective. It helped build a foundation for many intersectional movements being led by today’s activists in the face of accelerating threats to the LGBTQ community. Franco co-founded The Curve Foundation, the only national nonprofit championing lesbian and queer women’s culture and stories through intergenerational programming and community building. Franco is the subject of the documentary AHEAD OF THE CURVE, released on Netflix on April 22, 2024, to kick off Lesbian Visibility Week.