The Lavender Menace
Reading: Tales of the Lavender Menace by Karla Jay
“The Lavender Menace zap that took place on May 1, 1970 at the Second Congress to Unite Women remains for activists, for historians, and for those of us who participated in it the single most import action organised by lesbians who wanted the women’s movement to acknowledge our presence and needs. That event completely reshaped the relationship of lesbians to feminism for years to come.” p. 137
“Most heterosexual feminists were no better at hearing us than gay men were. Conservative elements of the women’s movement were openly hostile to lesbians.” The reason for this hostility was mostly a question of appearance in the eyes of men and the mainstream media. The reputation of the women’s liberation movement had to be safe-guarded, lest women participating be described as “man-haters” and “a bunch of dykes” as Betty Friedan feared. What a shame that would have been, if these respectable heterosexual women were put in the same basket as lesbians. This performative lesbophobia is nothing but an attempt at appeasing the dominant males, to make sure that even if women are campaigning for a little betterment of their existence, for a little relief from their oppression, men are still not too displeased with them. It’s an attempt to diminish the backlash. But how much are these heterosexuals loosing by compromising in such a way? Haven’t they already lost? By being afraid of what the public and especially the men will think if they are associated with lesbians, have they not immediately failed at liberating women? Because lesbians are women too. As long as one woman is in chain, we are not free, even if this woman is a lesbian.
The Lavender Menace action consisted of a group of rightfully disgruntled lesbian feminists, including Karla Jay, Rita Mae Brown and Michaela Griffo, who planned on disrupting the Second Congress to Unite Women, of which none of the featured women were out lesbians. To achieve this, they met for weeks and wrote and polished a manifesto, “The Woman-Identified Woman”, asserting that the aim of the women’s liberation movement was “the primacy of women relating to women, of women creating a new consciousness of and with each other which is at the heart of women’s liberation, and the basis for the cultural revolution.” They turned of the lights and disconnected the microphone right before the first speaker started her presentation. They brought the audience to their side by theatrics (humorous slogans on placards, unbuttoning blouses to reveal purple-dyed T-shirts emblazoned with “Lavender Menace”, taking off one of these shirt to reveal another one underneath, inviting members of the audience to join them), before passing out copies of their manifesto and taking the stage.
They explained “how angry [they] were to have been excluded from the planning and content of the conference.” They wanted lesbian voices and issues to be taken into account. A discussion took place with the women in the audience. An immediate result was the organisation of workshops led by lesbian in the next days, on heterosexism. Black women and lower class women also took the action as an opportunity to express themselves, and afterward organise workshops, on the racism and classism pervading the movement.
For the lesbians who organised and participated in the Lavender Menace action, Karla Jay explains that “the best thing that emerged […] was the group of protesters itself—the first post-Stonewall group to focus on lesbian issues. […] For the moment at least, [they] emerged a victorious organization with a sense of solidarity, common purpose, and sisterhood.” And their resolve is strong: “We knew we would no longer accept second-class status in the women’s movement or the gay movement. We would be equal partners, or we would leave the straight women and gay men behind.”
