Lesbian Assertiveness

• Lesbian assertiveness

  The development of assertiveness among lesbians
• Protest movements played an important part in the development of lesbian assertiveness


  1960s
• Lesbian activists

  • Kate Millett
  • Ti Grace Atkinson
• Kate Millett's activism

  1. Participated in CORE activism

  2. Joined the NOW committee in 1966

  3. Moved to more militant groups such as the Radicalesbians and the New York Radical Women
• Ti Grace Atkinson: 'Feminism is the theory, lesbianism is the practice'
• Relationship between the NOW and vociferous lesbians

  Initially tense
• Many NOW members feared

  Equating women's rights with lesbianism would damage their cause
• From 1971


  The NOW began to acknowledge lesbian rights as a feminist issue
• Sexual Politics

  Millett's 1970 book that criticised the patriarchal nature of American society and argued that traditional families upheld sex-based oppression