JUNE 28: The Lesbian Avengers are founded (1992)
If you ask someone today what they think of when they hear the word “Avengers,” you will probably get roped into a lengthy discussion on Team Iron Man versus Team Captain America. If you were to ask someone back in 1992 what they thought of when they heard the word “Avengers,” you might get an answer like, “you mean that weird lesbian group!?” On this day in 1992, the Lesbian Avengers were founded in New York City.
Photographed by Marilyn Humphries, a topless protester holds a Lesbian Avengers banner at a 1996 demonstration (x).
Ana Maria Simo, Sarah Schulman, Maxine Wolfe, Anne-Christine D'Adesky, Marie Honan, and Anne Maguire are the founding mothers of the Lesbian Avengers. All six women were longtime activists at the time of the organization’s creation, having been heavily involved with groups such as ACT-UP, ILGO, and Medusa’s Revenge. In a 1993 Newsweek article, the Avengers cite lesbians’ invisibility as their driving cause; while lesbians had been contributing to the LGBT community forever, their voices and particular needs as a group were being repeatedly neglected. In the article, activists are quoted as saying, “When a lesbian walks into a room of gay men, it’s the same as when she walks into a room of heterosexual men, you’re listened to and then politely ignored…We’re not going to be invisible anymore …We are going to be prominent and have power and be part of all decision making.“ The Avengers’ recruiting began at New York City’s 1992 Pride parade where flyers were handed out proclaiming, “LESBIANS! DYKES! GAY WOMEN! We’re wasting our lives being careful. Imagine what your life could be. Aren’t you ready to make it happen?” The response was an overwhelming YES! and the LGBT Community Services Center was packed for the Lesbian Avenger’s first meeting.
Lesbian Avengers in Minneapolis hold picket signs reading “WEAPON WIELDING WOMEN HAVE MORE FUN,” and “LESBIAN AVENGERS” (x).
The group eventually became so large and well-known that other chapters began to pop up in other U.S. cities, as well as one in London. For years, the Lesbian Avengers fought against misogyny in the gay community and homophobia in the general population. A Lesbian Avenger Handbook was soon published to help teach group members how to successfully pull off picket lines, sit-ins, and petitions. Two of their most famous contributions to LGBT activism include the Dyke March (which we covered here!) and the practice of fire-eating as protest. In 1993, a lesbian and gay man named Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock were burned alive in their apartment when a Molotov cocktail was tossed into their window. The story made national news and in a memorial for Hattie and Brian, the Lesbian Avengers ate fire and chanted “The fire will not consume us. We take it and make it our own.“ Although the practice has now cooled down to mostly just carrying torches, fire-eating remains an important symbol in lesbian activism and the Lesbian Avenger’s history, with a documentary being titled Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too.
Photographed by Carolina Kroon, several Lesbian Avengers stand in a line and eat fire (x).
In the 1990s, the Lesbian Avengers boasted over 55 chapters across the United States, but unfortunately the groups have gone dormant over time. The last public demonstration of the Avengers took place in 2008 when the San Francisco Lesbian Avengers protested against Prop 8.
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