Lavender Menace
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Lavender Menace was an informal group of
lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
radical feminists formed to protest the exclusion of lesbians and their issues from the
feminist movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and wom ...
at the Second Congress to Unite Women in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
on May 1, 1970. Members included Karla Jay, Martha Shelley, Rita Mae Brown, Lois Hart, Barbara Love, Ellen Shumsky, Artemis March, Cynthia Funk, Linda Rhodes, Arlene Kushner, Ellen Broidy, and Michela Griffo, and were mostly members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the
National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
(NOW). They later became the Radicalesbians.


Origins

The term "lavender menace" originated as a negative term for the association of lesbianism with the feminist movement, but it was later reclaimed as a positive term by lesbian feminists. The "lavender" aspect of the term stems back to the early 20th century in which lavender shades became popular in women's fashion, and the color took on meaning as a slang term for gay men. The phrase "Lavender Menace" was reportedly first used in 1969 by Betty Friedan, president of The National Organization for Women (NOW), to describe the threat that she believed associations with lesbianism posed to NOW and the emerging women's movement. Friedan, and some other heterosexual feminists, worried that the association would hamstring feminists' ability to achieve serious political change. Under her direction, NOW attempted to distance itself from lesbian causes – including omitting the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis from the list of sponsors of the First Congress to Unite Women in November 1969. Friedan's remarks and the decision to drop DOB from the sponsor list led lesbian feminist Rita Mae Brown to angrily resign her administrative job at NOW in February 1970. In a ''
New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...
'' article on March 15, 1970, straight radical feminist Susan Brownmiller quoted Friedan's remarks about the "lavender menace," which Brownmiller took as an allusion to Cold War era " Red Menace" rhetoric, and dismissed Friedan's worries as "A lavender ''herring'', perhaps, but no clear and present danger." Brownmiller later said that when she wrote the article, she had intended to use a humorous quip to distance herself from Friedan's homophobia. However, some lesbian feminists, such as Michela Griffo, took her remarks as "a scathing put-down" and "evidence of Susan's homophobia or closet homosexuality—that is, that she was trying to distance herself from lesbians by insulting us." They felt that the quip dismissed lesbians as an insignificant part of the movement, or lesbian issues as unnecessary distractions from the important issues. "The women's movement had coined the motto ' the personal is political,'" said Karla Jay, in the 2014 documentary '' She's Beautiful When She's Angry''. "But when you were a lesbian and wanted to talk about lesbian relationships, as opposed to heterosexual relationships, they didn't want to hear about it."


Second Congress to Unite Women

Describing lesbian activist Rita Mae Brown, Karla Jay has said: "one thing that you were not going to tell Rita was to shut up." Brown suggested to her consciousness-raising group that lesbian radical feminists organize an action in response to Brownmiller's comments, and the public airing of Friedan's complaints. The group decided to target the Second Congress to Unite Women in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
on May 1, 1970, which they noticed featured not a single open lesbian on the program. They planned a demonstration for the opening session of the Congress, which would use humor and nonviolent confrontation to raise awareness of lesbians and lesbian issues as vital parts to the emerging women's movement. They prepared a ten-paragraph manifesto entitled " The Woman-Identified Woman" and made T-shirts, dyed lavender and silkscreened with the words "Lavender Menace" for the entire group. They also created rose colored signs with slogans like "Women's Liberation ''IS'' A Lesbian Plot" and "You're Going To Love The Lavender Menace" written on them, which were then placed throughout the auditorium. Karla Jay, one of the organizers and participants in the zap, describes what happened: After the initial stunt, the women passed out mimeographed copies of " The Woman-Identified Woman" and took the stage, where they explained how angry they were about the exclusion of lesbians from the conference and the women's movement as a whole. A few members of the planning committee tried to take back the stage and return to the original program, but gave up in the face of the resolute group and the audience, who used applause and boos to show their support. The group and the audience then used the microphone for a spontaneous speak-out on lesbianism in the feminist movement, and several of the participants in the "zap" were invited to run workshops the next day on lesbian rights and
homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...
. Straight and gay women from the congress joined an all-women's dance, a frequent organizing and social tool used by Gay Liberation Front men and women. After the Congress, the women who had organized the protest began to hold consciousness-raising groups for women of all sexualities. They also changed their name, first to Lesbian Liberation, then to Radicalesbians.


Effects

The "Lavender Menace" zap, and the publication of "The Woman-Identified Woman," are widely remembered by many lesbian-feminists as a turning-point in the second-wave feminist movement, and as a founding moment for lesbian feminism. After the zap, many of the organizers continued to meet, and decided to create a lasting organization to continue their activism, which they eventually decided to call the "Radicalesbians". At the next national conference of NOW, in September 1971, the delegates adopted a resolution recognizing lesbianism and lesbian rights as "a legitimate concern for feminism". The Lavender Menace Bookshop, an independent gay bookshop in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
that existed from 1982 to 1986, began as a bookstall called Lavender Books in the cloakroom of Fire Island gay disco on
Princes Street Princes Street () is one of the major thoroughfares in central Edinburgh, Scotland and the main shopping street in the capital. It is the southernmost street of Edinburgh's New Town, Edinburgh, New Town, stretching around 1.2 km (three quar ...
, Edinburgh; the name of the stall was taken from the Lavender Menace group. In 1999,
Susan Brownmiller Susan Brownmiller (born Susan Warhaftig; February 15, 1935 – May 24, 2025) was an American journalist, author, and feminist activist, best known for her 1975 book '' Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape'', which was selected by The New ...
described the impact of the protest and subsequent lesbian-feminist organizing, writing that "Lesbians would be silent no longer in the women's movement." Karla Jay described it in her memoirs as "the single most important action organized by lesbians who wanted the women's movement to acknowledge our presence and needs," and said that it "completely reshaped the relationship of lesbians to feminism for years to come." "We felt as well," Jay wrote, "that the zap was only the first of many actions to come and that lesbian liberation was suddenly and unstoppably on the rise."


See also

* LGBT rights in the United States *
List of LGBT rights organizations This is a list of LGBTQ rights organizations around the world. For social and support groups or organizations affiliated with mainstream religious organizations, please see ''List of LGBT-related organizations and conferences''. For organization ...
* Transexual Menace


References

{{Reflist


External links


Radical Lesbians at GLBTQ

The Woman-identified Woman by Radicalesbians

Lavender Menace Action at NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
1970 in LGBTQ history 1970 establishments in New York City Organizations established in 1970 Lesbian feminist organizations in the United States Radical feminist organizations in the United States Defunct lesbian organizations in the United States History of women's rights in the United States LGBTQ political advocacy groups in the United States Defunct LGBTQ organizations based in New York City Women in New York City