The Scum of the Scum of the Scum: Rose Romano's Search for Sisterhood

This article explores the interplay of ethnicity and sexuality in poet Rose Romano's work, especially as she engages in a complex, and, at times, highly debatable identity politics. In her poetry, Romano denounces the oppression she experiences as a lesbian, a Sicilian American, and even as an "olive" ethnic in the lesbian publishing community. Particularly interesting is her strained relationship with the multicultural lesbian community due to disagreements around the concept of race, and, consequently, of racial hierarchies. With her poetry, Rose Romano questioned all kinds of categorizations that do not take into account the complexities of her multi-faceted identity.