Lavender Menace facts for kids

The Lavender Menace was a group of women who were part of the women's movement. They were also lesbians, meaning women who love women. They formed in New York City on May 1, 1970. Their goal was to protest how lesbians and their concerns were being left out of the larger women's movement.

Many members of the Lavender Menace were also part of groups like the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the National Organization for Women (NOW). Some of the women involved included Karla Jay, Martha Shelley, Rita Mae Brown, and Barbara Love.

How the Name Started

The name "Lavender Menace" first started as a negative term. Some people used it to suggest that being a lesbian was a threat to the women's movement.

In 1969, Betty Friedan, who was the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), reportedly used the phrase. She worried that if the women's movement was linked to lesbians, it would make it harder to achieve important changes. She feared that stereotypes about "mannish" or "man-hating" lesbians would be used to dismiss the whole movement.

Because of these worries, NOW tried to distance itself from lesbian causes. For example, they left out a lesbian group called the Daughters of Bilitis from a list of sponsors for a big women's conference in 1969.

This made many lesbian feminists angry. Rita Mae Brown quit her job at NOW in February 1970 because of it. A writer named Susan Brownmiller later wrote about Friedan's "lavender menace" comments in a newspaper article. Brownmiller thought Friedan's worries were not a real danger.

However, some lesbian feminists, like Michela Griffo, felt that Brownmiller's comments were insulting. They felt it made lesbians seem unimportant to the movement.

Karla Jay, a member of the Lavender Menace, explained in a documentary: "The women's movement had coined the motto 'the personal is political,' 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."

Action at the Women's Congress

Rita Mae Brown was a strong activist who wasn't afraid to speak up. She suggested to her group that they should do something about how lesbians were being treated. They decided to target the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York City on May 1, 1970. They noticed that not a single openly lesbian woman was scheduled to speak at the event.

The group planned a surprise action, sometimes called a "zap." They wanted to use humor and peaceful protest to show that lesbians and their concerns were a vital part of the women's movement.

They wrote a ten-paragraph statement called "The Woman-Identified Woman." They also made T-shirts dyed lavender with "Lavender Menace" printed on them. They created pink signs with slogans like "Women's Liberation IS A Lesbian Plot" and "You're Going To Love The Lavender Menace." These signs were placed around the auditorium.

Karla Jay, who helped organize the event, described what happened:

Finally, we were ready. The Second Congress to Unite Women got under way on May 1 at 7:00 PM at Intermediate School 70 on West Seventeenth Street in Manhattan. About three hundred women filed into the school auditorium. Just as the first speaker came to the microphone, Jesse Falstein, a GLF member, and Michela [Griffo] switched off the lights and pulled the plug on the mike. (They had cased the place the previous day, and knew exactly where the switches were and how to work them.) I was planted in the middle of the audience, and I could hear my coconspirators running down both aisles. Some were laughing, while others were emitting rebel yells. When Michela and Jesse flipped the lights back on, both aisles were lined with seventeen lesbians wearing their Lavender Menace T-shirts and holding the placards we had made. Some invited the audience to join them. I stood up and yelled, "Yes, yes, sisters! I'm tired of being in the closet because of the women's movement." Much to the horror of the audience, I unbuttoned the long-sleeved red blouse I was wearing and ripped it off. Underneath, I was wearing a Lavender Menace T-shirt. There were hoots of laughter as I joined the others in the aisles. Then Rita [Mae Brown] yelled to members of the audience, "Who wants to join us?"

"I do, I do," several replied.

Then Rita also pulled off her Lavender Menace T-shirt. Again, there were gasps, but underneath she had on another one. More laughter. The audience was on our side.

—Karla Jay, Tales of the Lavender Menace, 143

After this surprise, the "Menaces" handed out copies of "The Woman-Identified Woman." They then took over the stage. They explained how angry they were about lesbians being left out of the conference and the women's movement. Some of the conference organizers tried to get the stage back, but they gave up. The audience showed their support for the Lavender Menace with applause and cheers.

The group and the audience then used the microphone to talk openly about lesbian issues in the feminist movement. Several members of the Lavender Menace were even invited to lead workshops the next day. These workshops focused on lesbian rights and the unfair treatment of people who are lesbian or gay.

Lasting Impact

The "Lavender Menace" action and the statement "The Woman-Identified Woman" are seen as a very important moment in the second-wave feminist movement. It was also a key moment for the start of lesbian feminism.

After the protest, many of the organizers kept meeting. They decided to form a lasting group to continue their activism. They eventually called themselves the "Radicalesbians".

At the next big conference for the NOW in September 1971, the members voted on an important resolution. They agreed that lesbianism and lesbian rights were a "legitimate concern for feminism." This meant that NOW officially recognized these issues as important for the women's movement.

In 1999, Susan Brownmiller wrote about the impact, saying that "Lesbians would be silent no longer in the women's movement." Karla Jay called it "the single most important action organized by lesbians who wanted the women's movement to acknowledge our presence and needs." She also said it "completely reshaped the relationship of lesbians to feminism for years to come."

See also

In Spanish: Lavender Menace para niños