15th March 2024
You know what? Women are creating women’s history right now!
Recently, I was invited to speak at a celebration of life held at the LGBTQ Community Center in New York City for my friend and mentor, Barbara Love. She was a truly remarkable woman whose activism and writings played an essential part in uniting the early women’s liberation and gay movements.
My remarks that day, now available on my YouTube channel, describe an encounter I had with Sidney Abbott and Barbara Love’s book, “Sappho Was a Right-On Woman,” which turned my world upside-down. That pivotal moment in 1973 transformed my consciousness and propelled the next fifty years of my work in Women’s Music.
Barbara Love was the editor of the encyclopedic book “Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975.” She was a fierce and charismatic activist/organizer who helped found the National LGBTQ Task Force and PFLAG (Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays).
If you want to see this amazon in action, drop by The American Archive of Public Broadcasting and watch a fascinating 1974 PBS interview with Barbara in all her glory. Here she demonstrates the magnetic, yet casual precision and effortless style that made her such a force in both public and behind-the-scenes activism. Visit Veteran Feminists of America for more of Barbara’s story and those of other feminist pioneers.
Onward and Outward!
