Tag: Second Wave Feminism

A REPLAY OF THE LAVENDER MENACE: NATIONAL NOW CONFERENCE SILENCES AND DISAPPEARS LESBIANS

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By Ann E. Menasche

This piece is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the opinion of Feminists in Struggle as an organization

Lesbian existence is fundamentally about women’s autonomy and independence from men- the freedom to say “no” to men and to say “yes” to other women.  Both are acts of resistance that are deeply stigmatized and often severely punished.   Without the freedom to be an open lesbian, there can be no women’s liberation.

From the early days of the Second Wave, some feminists did the work of the patriarchy – silencing, excluding and disappearing lesbians.

It happened once again at the national conference of the National Organization for Women (NOW) held in Alexandria, Virginia, June 25th to 27th 2026.   About 200 people, mostly women, attended the conference in person, and a couple of dozen attended remotely.

At the Conference, lesbians who met in caucus to demand the basic right to meet together and self-organize as lesbians in women- only spaces (apart from males, whatever their “gender identity”) were treated abysmally.  They were disrespected, yelled at, called “TERFS” – an anti-lesbian, anti-feminist slur –  accused of “discrimination” and verbally abused.

The lesbian caucus proposed a resolution calling on NOW to support Lesbian-only spaces.   The resolution read in part, “WHEREAS, lesbians have a right to define their sexual orientation on the basis of same sex attraction…WHEREAS the sex-based rights of lesbians includes the freedom to assemble and to organize on the basis of their common same sex sexual orientation…THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Organization for Women (NOW) reaffirms its solidarity in standing with lesbians when lesbians seek to create sex-segregated spaces to gather to discuss their lives in safety and mutual support.”

The leadership of NOW pulled all stops to make sure this resolution did not reach the floor for a vote.  Gender ideologues have captured most of NOW’s leadership and part of its membership.   There are, of course, dissenters, but at least until recently, they have been terrified of speaking out and facing the fury of witch-hunters who not only ostracize apostates but destroy jobs and livelihoods, and threaten or even carry out physical assaults.   The true believers at the Conference, in an apparently coordinated fashion, spent substantial time challenging every resolution and bylaw that came before the body, nitpicking every word and phrase in an attempt to take up as much time as possible.

Exactly twelve minutes before the time the conference was set to close, the delegates finally began to address the lesbian resolution.  After a couple of lesbians including myself spoke in favor, one woman asked “what about transwomen, are they to be included in these spaces since they are lesbians too?”    Then a motion was made to table the resolution “indefinitely”, which is not even possible under Roberts Rules. That motion was defeated.  The resolution itself was now ready to be voted on. It was  exactly 4:00 p.m., the time the Convention was scheduled to end.  Voting would have taken two to three minutes, done quickly by raising hands and credentials, as it had throughout the day.  However, the chair, NOW President Kim Villanueva, closed the meeting and called my motion to allow the vote to proceed “out of order.”  The message was that lesbians, at least those who stand up for their community, are not truly welcome in NOW.

Lesbians have always fought back.   In May of 1970, lesbians attending the Second Congress to Unite Women were sick of being forced into the closet, and the exclusion of  lesbian issues from the movement. They took over the stage, unveiled “lavender menace” tee-shirts, and demanded  recognition of lesbian issues as part and parcel of the struggle for women’s liberation.

For a time, the women’s movement embraced  its lesbian sisters.  No longer.  The misogyny and homophobia of gender identity ideology has assigned lesbians to irrelevance and conspired to our complete erasure.  For if men can be lesbians, there ARE no lesbians!

But our little group of lesbians and radical feminist allies, many defiantly sporting their own Lavender Menace tee-shirts at the Conference,  have just begun to fight to take our movement back. THE LAVENDER MENACE SHALL RISE AGAIN!

 

 

 

 

Report Back on WDI-USA national conference

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FIST members attended the the Women’s Declaration International – USA conference , which took place in Washington DC, September 23-25, 2022. The theme and title of the conference was “Reigniting the Women’s Liberation Movement”. The gathering lived up to its “national” title with women having traveled to the conference from across the country; we spoke to women from at least 11 states. Relative to the female population in the U.S., there was good representation of black and brown women (including in the leadership) and a large lesbian contingent. Some of us estimated that 2/3 of us were older and 1/3 were women in their mid-30s or younger. The feeling was very warm and welcoming, it was truly wonderful to share a weekend meeting 100 like-minded women (or so we assumed).
The conference was very well organized, there were back-to-back plenaries and breakouts for a full two days, in addition to the introductory plenary on Friday night, where members of the Board of WDI-USA introduced themselves and the conference–plenaries took place in the dining room so we were able to continue eating and have our dessert even as we took in all of the ideas presented. The food was good and plentiful. Everything ran on time. It took place in a swanky hotel and we sat in a ballroom complete with sparkly chandeliers and white tablecloths.  There were many good presentations with some time for questions afterwards but there was very little actual discussion. Very little exploration of how far our assumed like-mindedness went.
Plenaries included those on the Second Wave of the WLM, Radical Feminist Structural Analysis, Nonviolent mass Action as a strategy for Resistance, the history of feminists “trashing” each other in the women’s movement and strategies to combat it, Women’s writing, Grassroots Organizing, Women in Leadership, Women’s Community, Stories and Land, Ethical Communication, and finally “What Would Victory Look Like?”.

The plenaries were interspersed with smaller breakout sessions on Reproductive Rights, Opposition to the Sex Trade, the Value of Lesbian Only Spaces, Consciousness Raising, Gender and Feminism, Misogynoir (“Black Patriarchy”, facilitated by Black women) and Legislative Advocacy.

Some of our differences became evident during the last session of the conference. as all women in attendance were asked to present their visions of what “victory” would look like. Otherwise differences were not discussed at all; we never touched upon feminists taking money from Christian Nationalists, or the WDI-USA promotion of Women’s Bill of Rights, or their opposition (or at least WoLF’s) to the ERA (see our ERA-FIST brochure) or the WDI statement in opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act or their former work on their Equality for All Act which is a watered-down version of FIST’s Feminist Amendments to the Equality Act or the history of the right wing trying to co-opt feminism through groups such as the Independent Women’s Forum. Nor was there any discussion of how WDI/WDI-USA is funded or how the conference itself was funded.
 
The conference centered on the issue of gender and there was a great sense of relief in being at a large gathering where gender-critical views could be openly discussed. However, it did eclipse other crucial issues, such as the recent catastrophic loss of legal abortion in the U.S.  Reproductive rights and justice was not a major topic at any of the plenaries at which everyone in attendance was present. After the conference, FIST members and other attendees from NY had a discussion about what the place of gender should be in terms of women’s liberation as a whole (we reached no conclusion and consider this an ongoing discussion).
This one meeting might not reignite the Women’s Liberation Movement but it certainly demonstrated that the embers have not burned out. The great deal of warmth and openness—really great spirit—gives us hope for bringing the different “factions” of feminism together on mutually agreed upon campaigns.
Posts to our blog page by Feminist Writer are the opinions of individual FIST members and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Feminists in Struggle organization.  Official posts are authored by Feminist Struggle.

Feminist Education Series: Our Radical Feminist Roots

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Feminists in Struggle (FIST) presents our women-only Feminist Education Series (part one): OUR RADICAL FEMINIST ROOTS from January through August of 2022.

We will be reading and discussing articles and books and viewing movies from our feminist herstory covering both the First and Second Waves of Feminism. There will be brief presentations and small group discussions at each session to raise consciousness and build sisterhood. We are also presenting two panels of “veterans” from the Feminist Movement sharing their experiences and where we should go from here. See this flyer or the Eventbrite page for more details!

The sessions will occur on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of every month on Zoom: 5:30 to 7:30 Pacific, 7:30 to 9:30 Central, and 8:30 to 10:30 Eastern. Copies of many of the written materials will be provided. We will also make suggestions about where other books and materials may be obtained free or at a reasonable price.

The series is free for dues-paying FIST members // $25 for non-members // $15 for low-income non-members – PRICES ARE FOR THE WHOLE SERIES.

Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite here.

Knowledge is power! Please join us!

In solidarity,
Feminists in Struggle