Total ’90s Lesbian Trivia Quiz

In April we’ll be kicking off our Trivia Meet-Ups month, in which Autostraddlers from all around the world will host local meet-ups that involve some kind of trivia game! Because trivia is fun, and guided activities are nature’s best water-based lubricant for otherwise potentially awkward social intercourse.

But, even if you can’t go or meet-ups aren’t your thing, good news: you can play trivia games on the internet right here! We’ll have a few in March, and a bunch in April.

Today’s topic? ’90s lesbian arts & pop culture. So go ahead and pop Swamp Ophelia into your discman and let’s get this party started! In the comments, please let me know: 1. your score, 2. what year you were born. For the record, my score is “100” and I was born in 1981.

If you cheat and look stuff up then you’re going to have to live with that for the rest of your life, so think about that long and hard before you do it.

Total '90s Lesbian Trivia

  • 2. What is the name of this then-identified "all-dyke" punk queercore band from San Francisco that was notorious for its wild stage shows (including 1994's "Tits & Tofu Tour") during which lead singer Lynn Breedlove would often perform topless while wearing a strap-on?

  • 6. The lesbian erotic magazine pictured here, described as "Entertainment for the Adventurous Lesbian," launched in the mid-'80s and went bankrupt in 1995 before getting a second life from 1998-2006. What was it called?

  • 9. This musician won a 1997 Grammy for "Give Me One Reason" but her first nomination was in 1989, for "Fast Car."

  • 11. Who is getting married in this picture?

  • 15. This legendary lesbian writer and activist was named New York's Poet Laureate in 1991.

  • 21. The lesbian photographer who took these pictures, well-known for her photographs of LA freeways, the leather-dyke community, queer families, and high school football players; was commissioned by LACMA in 1995 to make a "Dyke Deck," a deck of playing cards with pictures of LGBT "queens" and "kings." What's her name?

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3238 articles for us.

165 Comments

  1. 1. 21/23
    2. 1982

    I knew that I would be undone by my shocking cultural blindspot for Ani DiFranco and Rent…

    • Rent was also one I missed. I was aware of it but there was the whole Sarah Schulman plagiarism angle, and I was way more into her than musicals

    • I’m not as literate in Ani DiFranco as other queer 90s music, never really caught on. But I got that one right because I knew the name of the album that was made by another band.

  3. Also, who is up for playing snap with Dyke Deck at camp!

    Answer: definitely not me, because I find snap a violent and overly-confrontational card game.

  5. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 13
    Percentage: 57%
    Year of birth: 1987

    I’m so sorry Riese please don’t fire me this was a very good quiz and I learned a lot.

  6. 14/23, b. 1987. A few were lucky guesses, a few were things I’ve learned by reading articles on this very website, but none were things I learned by living through them.

  7. 1. 21 (I missed the Ellen guest star & Rent ones)
    2. 1973
    Yeah, I remember almost all of these things happening. I came out in 1991.

  9. 1. Score: 20
    2. Year of Birth: 1980

    I’m a little embarrassed by the “B” and blame my teen self for her Indigo Girls obsession.

    (which, lezbihonest, continues)

  12. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 9
    Percentage: 39%

    Not bad for someone who wasn’t born until 1994!

    (Side note – Maureen’s girlfriend in Rent is Joanne not Joanna)

  14. Quiz Grade: D
    14/23 (61%)
    Year of Birth: 1979

    In my defense I was not allowed to watch any television that wasnt PBS until high school and then I was purposefully kept too busy to consume a lot of pulp culture

    I was OBSESSED with that Sophie B. Hawkins song Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

    Years later I realized how gay it (and I) was

  15. I did horrible with 48% but I still like to thank Angelina Jolie and Ani DiFranco for helping me get that score.

    • I was born in 1977 but I come from a small town in Newfoundland, Canada. It wasn’t until I went to University that I discovered Ani DiFranco, Rent and many queer movies. (Thanks LBGTMUN) I am still learning things today that I should probably know.

  17. 1. 10
    2. 1982

    I’m not gonna lie to you Marge, some of those were a complete accident. I’ll be over here, hiding in shame.

  19. Born in 1989. Came out in 2009.

    Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 15
    Percentage: 65%

    This actually makes me look way more knowledgeable than I really am, because except for the questions about Friends and Rent, all the answers I knew I knew only because I’d read about them on Autostraddle.

  21. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 14
    Percentage: 61%

    I’m not gonna lie, I guessed on a lot of these. But I did grow up in the 90’s, so I had that going for me.

  22. Score: 14/23
    Year: 1993

    I’m pretty sure that every answer I knew I learned thanks to this website <3

  23. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 10
    Percentage: 43%
    Year of birth: 1997

    Apparently I wasn’t a very culturally conscious foetus.

  24. Quiz Grade: C
    Score: 18
    Percentage: 78%

    Born 1986.

    A few additional things-

    1. I loved every minute of this! Procrastination at its finest.
    2. I am now going to have “Take me or leave me” stuck in my head for the rest of the day (thank you Jonathon Larson)
    3. I would also like not to be fired, Riese. When Ellen came out, I was only 10 years old! I’m trying! I promise I’m trying!!!
    4. That photo of Cindy Crawford and kd lang. I got it correct on a lucky guess, but WOWZERS!!! IT IS BURNED INTO MY MEMORY FOREVER NOW!!!

    Forever and ever. Amen.

  25. 20/23 thought i did great but i see now i’m wrong. who else among us will help me fight against the tyranny that is rent the musical

  30. 15, born 1993

    A thing about me is that I’m bad at music? I never know who sings which songs or what bands people are listening to or anything music related. So. That’s what I’m using as my defense.

  31. Ha! Born 1981.

    Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 11
    Percentage: 48%

    Blatant blind spots and/or memory gaps– But this was very educational.

  32. A
    21
    1982

    I didn’t know ALL of them but I knew enough about enough of the options to narrow down and guess.

    But I mean, my first ever concert as a child was Lilith Fair so what hope did I have ;)

  33. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 11
    Percentage: 48%
    Year of Birth: 1990

    Oof. I pride myself on being a 90s kid, but I guess I was more into giving my American Girl Dolls boobs and having them make out with each other.

  34. Score: 10
    Grade: E
    Percentage: 43%
    Year born: 2001

    I’ll just be happy that despite having been born after the 90’s were over I’ve spent so much time on this site that I know 43% of the answers.

  35. Score: 15 (D)
    Born in 1976 BUT I actively avoided all things gay until I finally came out to myself in 2008, so.

  38. Score: 13
    Year of birth: 1994

    I tried, I really did!!! But I will admit for some of the questions I had literally no idea who any of the people were!!!!! To give me some credit the oldest I was in the 90s was 5 so I look forward to a 00s trivia quiz soon.

  39. This is shameful

    Quiz Grade: C
    Score: 18
    Percentage: 78%

    I was born in 1980 for Pete’s sake.

    I always find it weird that Tracy Chapman didn’t released Give Me One Reason before 1997. I do remember one appearance on Saturday Night Live, I think it was on 1989, where she performed this song. The video has disappeared from the face of the earth.

  40. I got a 91 and was also born in 91! Even though this all was happening before I hit double digits, queer women’s history is my favourite research topic (and may or may not have gotten lucky with guessing on a couple)

    • I knew eventually the 90s would be classed as a historical research topic, but I am in no way prepared for that to be now.

  42. Grade: C
    Score: 18
    Born 1964. I was there for the 90s, but missed Rent and punk music.

  43. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 15
    Percentage: 65%
    Year: 1996

    I feel like this is respectable considering how little of the 90s I was around for – and for that I would like to thank autostraddle dot com

  46. I scored a D and got 61 percent right. I was born in 1983 but in my defense I didn’t have access to a TV for most of the 90s. Very educational though! Thank you Riese!

  48. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 12
    Percentage: 52%

    1982

    I would have had 13 but I second-guessed myself with L.A. Law.

  49. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 9
    Percentage: 39%

    1991 (also Dutch). The only questions I didn’t guess were about Ellen, Rent and Audre Lorde.

  51. 10 questions right
    Grade E
    Born in 1983…. in Ireland. Which is like 1883 in lesbian culture terms.

  52. I protest- there wasn’t nearly enough Indigo Girls, Calvin Klein ads, Dykes to Watch Out For, or My So Called Life trivia here to accurately reflect what was going on at the time!

    • But think of all the youngsters who will now relate so hard to Tribe 8 and Hothead Paison. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve seen one of those comics, and how often I think of Hothead in my day to day life as I am filled with rage on a daily basis?

  53. Quiz Grade: C
    Score: 18
    Percentage: 78%

    Born 1985

    I’ll take it since I’m not from the US and was supposedly straight until this decade.

  54. i am so pleased that we have talked about the ’90s enough that so many young humans scored so well

    also it seems the RENT question stumped a lot of older people! i did put it in there because i’ve noticed millennials are WAY more up on RENT than my generation, since you had to be into broadway in the 90s to know about it (i was), whereas then the movie came out in the mid-’00s. and i wanted something that would be easier for younger people

    also despite being born in 1981 i was not yet blossomed as a homosexual in the ’90s so a lot of this i learned later. and also b/c my mom was a lesbian in the ’90s.

    but! i did try to make the multiple choice in such a way that even if you were unfamiliar with the topic, you could maybe still narrow it down using process of elimination

    • I completely unnecessarily belted out Take Me or Leave Me just to be sure I got the right answer (which I could have never gotten wrong in a billion years, because I listen to that song every. single. day.)

    • I knew about Rent in the 90s because my gf at the time was a theater person, but I didn’t hear songs from it until a 30th birthday party I went to a couple of years ago

      • I’m so upset that I didn’t think to have a Rent-themed 30th-birthday party and now it’s years too late

  55. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 14
    Percentage: 61%
    1994
    There was one I knew but got wrong cause I didn’t full read all the options :/ Did the best with the questions on books!

  56. I think I just saw mention of an Indigo Girls specific quiz? Yes? BECAUSE I AM HERE FOR IT. Born in 1976- was there from the beginning friends!

  60. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 11
    Percentage: 48%

    Born 1969

    Should be 12 because I knew the LA Law one but hit the wrong button. I remember watching Abby and CJ’s kiss in the tv lounge of my college dorm (wait that makes it sound like I went to college with Abby and CJ) – Abby was the first bi character I ever saw on tv. Made a huge impression on baby-bi me.

  61. I got a 78% and was born in 1975. Oh well. I was too busy hanging out at lesbian bars and watching 90’s talk shows to know about some of that stuff haha.

  62. Quiz Grade: A
    Score: 21
    Percentage: 91%

    1979 — That Rolling Stone cover was LIFE CHANGING OMG

  63. Score: 74%
    Born: 1996

    I just really love 90s gay media/have the KD Lang/Cindy Crawford cover poster in my apartment.

  64. 13/23

    Born in 1996

    Basically a litmus test of what has broken through to still be remembered by a baby lesbian, barring the part where I know absolutely nothing about music.

  65. 1. 65% / 15
    2. 1986

    To be fair though I grew up in New Zealand which is roughly five years behind the rest of the world in terms of pop culture and queer culture and…any kind of culture that isn’t rugby.

  66. 21/23, 91% I missed the Rent question, and the Ellen question. I watched the Puppy Episode when it aired, but maybe that was the only time. I also used to listen to the Rent soundtrack a lot, but I drew a blank.

  68. Quiz Grade: B
    Score: 20
    Percentage: 87%
    Birth Year: 1992
    I feel like I mostly heard about this stuff from other queer people on the internet tbh
    BUT ALSO, I am HERE for Tortall Recall being an answer on the last question. They have been giving me life lately.

  69. 1. 20
    2. 1978

    P.S.- My very cool wife has an actual, physical copy of that Vanity Fair magazine.

    • Ugh jealous! I collect vintage magazine issues with lesbian significance and that one is always a lot on eBay so I’ve never gotten it

  70. You know I’ve been thinking about this all day and I really feel like the Lilith fair question is too hard and I want to take accountability for that

    • Hey I got that one! I LOVE Team Dresch and imagined Lillith People listening to them at the festival and it felt super dissonant and for once my gut feeling was right.

  71. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 15
    Percentage: 65%
    Year: 2000

    I’d say that’s pretty good seeing as I only ever experienced the 90s as a foetus

  72. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 9
    Percentage: 39%
    Year Born: 1985

    In my defence, I grew up in Malaysia, half of these would probably have been banned.

  73. 8/23, but I was born in 1996 so I guessed on most of them! Angelina Jolie in foxfire is probably my root tho

  74. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 13
    Percentage: 57%

    Born: 1987

    I am not from the States and I know most stuff from later research on 90s lesbian culture (i.e. reading Autostraddle).

    Loved the quiz, I learned a lot!

  75. 79% (17 right)
    Born in 1987.

    My knowledge of 90s lesbian culture is a mix of being super into RENT in middle school/Ani DiFranco in high school (in the early ‘00s), and learning things after the fact. Mostly from Autostraddle, so thank you for that!

  77. Quiz Grade: B
    Score: 20
    Percentage: 87%
    Year of birth: 1971

    I don’t know much about (American) television.

  78. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 15
    Percentage: 65%

    Born 1986 and honestly kind of embarrassed at how badly I did. I’ll have to study for the next one!

  79. Grade: D
    65%
    But, in my defense, I was born in 1996, and the American public school system doesn’t cover this stuff for some reason. Time for education reform!

  81. D: 14/23
    1992

    As a Scandinavian born in the 90s, I would like to thank the internet for a passing grade. Also, I remember writing a high school paper on Catherine Opie while listening to Tracy Chapman, so there that.

  83. I want to justified myself. I was born in 1980 but my case is pretty similar to @charrrlotte.

    Here Down Under (Argentina in this case) cable was not a thing until the end of the 90’s, and we only got the most popular TV shows. Alternative music? That train stopped in the mainstream grunge bands. Internet? We had dial-up until the middle 2000’s.

    It’s a freaking miracle I’ve got a 78%.

  84. A, 21, 91%, 1991! always pleased to see that my prodigious hoarding of pop culture knowledge was not in vain.

  85. Score: 96%. Birth year: 1964 (I was an adult in the 1990s; is that cheating?) For the record: the one question I missed was about lyrics from RENT. Fuck RENT. Team Sarah, all the way!

  86. My pop culture knowledge is limited, but it was fun to see that I knew a bit! I was born in 1981 and got a D on the quiz.

  89. Quiz Grade: C
    Score: 18
    Percentage: 78%

    I was born in 1980 and not out in the ’90’s. The music questions killed me.

  90. Quiz Grade: C
    Score: 17
    Percentage: 74%
    Year of birth: 1979

    Born and raised in Europe, though, so I kind of feel like this is a European A, tbh. I really enjoyed this, it brought back a lot of fond memories; Hothead Paisan remains my spirit animal to this day.

  91. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 16
    Percentage: 70%
    Born: 1978
    Came out: 1994

    I am sorry I have no excuse ?

  96. 70% and born in 2001. But I have poly parents and more specifically two moms who spurred my devotion to Tracy Chapman, RENT, Ani Difranco, Fried Green Tomatoes, etc. I also had a riot grrrl phase and have devoured every queer book/movie/tv show I could get my hands on in the past 4 years.

  97. 1. 20/23 B
    2. 1967

    I was able to sort through the ones I was unsureby process of elimination. (Ansela Adams, I see what you did there!) But I was actually there for/watched/listened to/read a lot of these at the time. I miss my Hothead Paisan shirt! Or just as likely I was swimming in a Bay of Pussy, surrounded by lesbanians and unconsciously inhaled their knowledge through my pores.

  98. 1. 19/B
    2. 1977

    Probably the Most Important Internet Quiz of All Time. I should have gotten more of these, but yeah. The 90s…sigh.

  99. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 16
    Percentage: 70%

    born 1991, pretty satisfied. if it were a 00’s quiz i would’ve crushed it

  100. Born 1976, 87%, my blind spot was the punkish singers. I 100% went to Lilith Fair but I was a total folky and ignored the more hard core bands.

  101. 7. Born 1987.

    There were a few I probably could have gotten right if I hadn’t been trying to do 10 other things at once. I admit to not giving this the focused attention it so obviously deserves. :p

  103. Quiz Grade: C
    Score: 17/23
    Percentage: 74%
    Year Born: 1992

    I forgot to come back here to post my score until after I saw today’s article with all of the results so I just missed my chance to be included with everyone else. ?

    • But you didn’t! Because I read your comment and now you are totally included!!! And I’ve read and commented on things that were posted like five years ago, and I can’t be the only one…

  105. 100%.
    1981.
    What I didn’t personally experience, I either read about in my obsessive-queer-culture-hunting babydyke days in the late 90s (thanks, Alison Bechdel) or heard about in my early-mid oughts LGBT Center job.

  107. Quiz Grade: E
    Score: 12
    Percentage: 52%

    Born in the 70s … let’s just leave it at that.

  108. I got a C, most likely because of Tracy Chapman, Audre Lorde, Tribe 8 , my fashion idol Darlene Connors and my supreme ability to use process of elimination in multi-choice questions.

    Too many blind spots when it comes to Rent and popular lesbian musicians who make me sleepy. Tracy Chapman is just magical and doesn’t make me sleepy no matter how slow a song goes.

  110. Quiz Grade: D
    Score: 14
    Percentage: 61%
    Birth year: 1994

    I am ASHAMED, even though I was between 0-5 for all that transpired.

  111. Ok, so I only got 18 But I feel like I should get extra points because hanging in my wife’s salon, in our basement, is a poster of the Cindy Crawford/K.D. Lang magazine cover…

        • But maybe we NEED a lesbian trivia quiz for ppl born in 1912! It would include questions about Boston Marriage and Willa Cather’s scandalous night life (I made that up but who knows?) and we could take it on their behalf! Or use a Ouji Board to let them answer the questions from BEYOND THE GRAVE!!!!!!

  117. 11 (48%). 1978.
    This probably says more about my being raised in a repressive culture (that contributed to my only coming out in 2020) than anything else. :)

  118. Raw Score: 21
    Percentage: 91%
    Year of birth: 1970
    Year of coming out: 1988
    Apparent era of maximum lesbianism: The 90’s

Comments are closed.