Lavender Menace tshirt

Betty Friedan,  author of the feminist classic “The Feminine Mystique,” and leader of NOW in 1969 (National Organization of Women),  began to distance the organization from lesbian causes, describing that the “man-hating” members of NOW would hinder progress and detract from the feminist movement.

When planning for the national conference, she excluded the lesbian activist group The Daughters of Bilitis from the list of sponsors of the First Congress To Unite Women in 1969. She denounced them as the “lavender menace.”

As a result, a group of activists, including Rita Mae Brown and Barbara Love and other members of the Gay Liberation Front, intervened in the meeting wearing “Lavender Menace” shirts with stenciled type.

(image from Lesbian Herstory Archives)