Lesbian Avengers

The Lesbian Avengers was conceived by Ana Maria Simo, Sarah Schulman, Maxine Wolfe, Anne-Christine D'Adesky, Marie Honan, and Anne Maguire, six longtime lesbian activists who were involved in a variety of LGBT groups from the Medusa's Revenge lesbian theater to ACT-UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and ILGO (the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization). Their first recruiting flyer, handed out at New York's Pride March, invited "LESBIANS! DYKES! GAY WOMEN!" to get involved. "We're wasting our lives being careful. Imagine what your life could be. Aren't you ready to make it happen?" [2]

The original group grew quickly, dozens of chapters appeared nationally, and even a handful internationally. The London group emerged from OutRage!. One activist told Salholz, "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." Lesbian Avenger Ann Northrop underlined the point. "We're not going to be invisible anymore ... We are going to be prominent and have power and be part of all decision making." [4] Her assumptions were largely proved in interviews with Avengers in the 1993 documentary film, Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire, Too edited by Su Friedrich and Janet Baus. Some members, though, joked they also joined to meet women.[2]

On their first action (September 9, 1992), the Lesbian Avengers targeted right-wing attempts to suppress a multicultural "Children of the Rainbow" curriculum for elementary schoolchildren. Ostensibly under attack for including lesbians and gay men in its lessons about diversity,[8] some activists like Ana Maria Simo charged that opponents, besides being homophobic, also had a racist agenda in battling the multicultural curriculum.[2]

Meeting in Queens School District 24 where the opposition to the "Rainbow Curriculum" was strongest, they paraded through the neighborhood with an all-lesbian marching band to a local elementary school where they gave out lavender balloons to children and their parents saying "Ask About Lesbian Lives". They also wore tee-shirts reading, "I was a lesbian child".[2]

This first action exemplified the Avenger approach.[1]

They also demonstrated without permits,[2] refusing to ask for permission to express themselves. Organizer Kelly Cogswell later elaborated on this principle during the 1994 International Dyke March, "We ask for a permit; they can say no."[9]

Above all, their choice of action reflected their commitment to challenging homophobic stereotypes. In this case, some members objected to going anywhere near children since lesbians and gay men had so often been portrayed as child molesters. Other members thought that was precisely why their presence was essential. And that was the eventual consensus of the group.[2]

Press played an important role in the Lesbian Avengers. One article characterized them as "a protest outfit formed to attract media attention to lesbian causes." [4] Besides shaping actions for visual impact, there were committees dedicated to outreach and "propaganda". The handbook offered a step by step guide on the processes necessary to attract press attention from mainstream and lesbian and gay media, even examples of press releases.[1]

Conflicts over the handling of the press coverage of the Dyke March also occurred within the New York gay and lesbian political community. In an interview, Simo said that a press release sent out by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) after Stonewall 25 initially did not have anything in it about the Dyke March. After the Avengers brought this issue to GLAAD's attention, one line was added to the end of the press release about the lack of mainstream press coverage about the Dyke March.[9][10]

Aware of the power of the press, the Lesbian Avengers sometimes didn't court it, but attacked it. They invaded the offices of Self magazine when that publication planned a trip to Colorado despite a lesbian and gay boycott of the state for hate legislation, and in the resulting media coverage were misnamed "The Lesbian Agenda." [11]

The Avengers also collaborated with Las Buenas Amigas and African Ancestral Lesbians United for Societal Change in a series of actions against homophobic and racist radio programs at La Mega 97.9 in New York, and its parent company, the Spanish Broadcasting System, informing advertisers, staging demonstration, and briefly taking over the radio station and broadcasting their own message.[12][13]

Use of fire and fire-eating became something of a symbol for the Lesbian Avengers, and spread from the New York group to many others. The New York Times, in one of its few articles on the Avengers, explained:

[It] grew out of tragedy. Last year, a lesbian and a gay man, Hattie Mae Cohens and Brian Mock, burned to death in Salem, Ore., after a Molotov cocktail was tossed into the apartment they shared. A month later, on Halloween, at a memorial to the victims in New York City, the Avengers (then newly organized) gave their response to the deaths. They ate fire, chanting, as they still do: "The fire will not consume us. We take it and make it our own.[14]

At the Washington Dyke March held during the anniversary celebrations of the Lesbian and Gay March on Washington in 1993, the Lesbian Avengers ate fire in front of the White House surrounded by a crowd of an estimated 20,000 lesbians.[2]

According to co-founder Sarah Schulman, "It was at the 1993 March on Washington that the Avengers and ACT-UP Women's Network created the first Dyke March -- with 20,000 women, marching together with no permit. These participants brought the marches home to their cities and countries and created a new tradition."[15]

The second New York City Dyke March, coinciding with the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, Gay Games IV, and international human rights conferences, was actually an International Dyke March, attracting as many as 20,000 marchers from all over the world.[9] The Dyke March tradition continues in many cities, including Mexico City.[16]