Remembering Dot Nelson Turnier

I am sad to hear about the death of Dot Nelson Turnier.  Dot was the founder of NOLOSE.



Photo: Dot Nelson Turnier, NOLOSE 2004. Photo by: Max Airborne

Here is an excerpt from the NOLOSE website about the group’s mission and history. 

Nolose is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to ending the oppression of fat people and creating vibrant fat queer culture.
Nolose was founded as the National Organization of Lesbians of Size Everywhere by Dot Nelson-Turnier, after the periodical Lesbian Connection published an image of a fat woman on its cover and many people among its readership reacted negatively. Dot funded Nolose herself for the first two years, before recruiting a board of directors and expanding the from a New York regional base to a national and international community.

Nolose’s gender policy was changed to include women and trans folks in the early 2000s, and in 2011 we became an organization by and for people of all genders.
The creation of that group, which just funded amazing regional projects across the country,  is powerful achievement, which brought joy, stimulation, and respite to me and so many others.  I met Dot at a fat feminist conference before NOLOSE. I remember sitting at a table in a hotel in New York or New Jersey, listening as Dot took responsibility for managing some group finances.  I didn’t know Dot well at the time, but a kind of good-hearted, big-spirited, down-to-earth civic-mindedness radiated from every word. I said to Dot, “It’s great to see some new leadership stepping up.” Little did I know how Dot strongly would both step up and do the difficult task of letting the group go to keep growing when the time came.

Dot was personally generous to me many times. There were years that I only made it to NOLOSE because Dot covered my registration to the conference. When I was reeling from getting fat-hating mail that felt like a punch in the gut I had a hard time recovering from, Dot and Dian came from New Jersey for the Speak-Out Against Fat Hatred we held in Northampton, and Dot filmed the whole event. Dot made sure that I knew that my writing mattered. I can’t begin to say how much that kind of community appreciation mattered to me when my work got a chilly reception at publishers not aware that there were readers eager for nuanced, complicated stories of fat queers that did not end in redemptive weight loss.

I remember hanging out in a hotel room with Dot, Dian, Miriam and Summer (both with very long, dedicated histories of organizing fat community) before a conference. I have such a vivid memory of Dot and Dian making a dramatic entrance to the dance floor in evening-wear, both riding scooters. It was such a pleasure to meet their daughter when she joined their family.  I can hear Dot and the mighty disability rights activist Mary Frances Platt having a quick, tough, funny exchange in a hotel lobby in which Mary Frances offered Dot business advice, and Dot did not in any way pretend to take it.

I mostly lost touch with Dot and Dian when they moved to Texas.  (Texas!)  I was delighted when I heard that Dot was a running for a political office as Democrat, and I do think I made a small donation to that campaign.  People are still getting gifts from Dot who may or may not know that that’s true. I remember.  I am grateful.  I’ll miss Dot's presence in this world.