From the late 1970s and into the 80s the monolithic view of lesbians was challenged more openly with discussions on the intersectionality of class and race. The Women’s Liberation Movement and feminist movements were dominated and documented by white middle-class identities that often erased and excluded the experiences, feminist ideas, and foundational work by women of color in these movements. In the 1980s more discussion on the different voices within the lesbian feminist movement were brought into the mainstream.

Books, essays, and papers published by women of color led the conversations of a more intersectional feminism. In 1981 the feminist anthology Bridge Called my Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa was published, as was Ain’t I a Woman by Bell Hooks, and Kitchen Table Women of Color Press, run by Barbara Smith, Cherríe Moraga, and Audre Lorde, was in full operation publishing feminist and lesbian writers of color.

Barbara Smith's book, Toward a Black Feminist Criticism (1977) begins with Smith saying:

"I do not know where to begin. Long before I tried to write this realized that I was attempting something unprecedented, something dangerous, merely by writing about Black lesbian writers from any perspective at all. These things have not been done. Not by white male critics, expectedly. Not by Black male critics. Not by white women critics who think of themselves as feminists. And most crucially not by Black women critics who, although they pay the most attention to Black women writers as a group, seldom use a consistent feminist analysis or write about Black lesbian literature. All segments of the literary world-whether establishment, progressive, Black, female, or lesbian —do not know, or at least act as if they do not know, that Black women writers and Black lesbian writers exist.

For whites, this specialized lack of knowledge is inextricably connected to their not knowing in any concrete or politically transforming way that Black women of any description dwell in this place. Black women's existence, experience, and culture and the brutally complex systems of oppression which shape these are in the "real world" of white and/or male consciousness beneath consideration, invisible, unknown."
-Barbara Smith, Toward a Black Feminist Criticism

The First Black Lesbian Conference

The First Black Lesbian Conference was held at the Women's Building in San Francisco October 17-19th 1980. It grew out of the First National Third World Lesbian/Gay Conference held in Washington D.C. in 1979, and was the first conference organized to support the needs of Black Lesbians. Andrea Canaan, Pat Norman, and Angela Davis were the keynote speakers, all speaking to the strengths and oppression of Black Lesbians, and the responsibility of "becoming visible".^[1]

Andrea Canaan shared her experience of coming out as a lesbian in her role as Program Coordinator of Women and Employment for the State of Louisiana, and consequently being fired after an employee Canaan had let go accused her of sexual assault. She went on to say that she knows that exposure, becoming visible means the loss of jobs, friends, and family, and there is still power, whether hidden or visible, as long as black lesbians are unified.^[2]
Pat Norman  was the coordinator of Gay Health Services for San Francisco's Public Health Department, a founder of the Lesbian Mothers' Union and a board member of the National Gay Task Force. She spoke on internalized racism and it's role in keeping Black people from uniting. Norman concluded with a question. "So, Black Lesbians, will we continue to just survive and not make progress?. . .Break the chains of internalized racism! Let's move together as Black women, Black Lesbians, becoming visible, becoming unafraid, coming together, using our differences and growing together."^[3]


Angela Davis, legendary activist, author, academic, abolitionist, was at the time a professor of Women's Studies at San Francisco State University, and lauded the conference as an historic event for Black people and a turning point in the Women's Movement. She spoke about Ruby Doris Johnson, Assata Shakur, and Joanne Little as unacknowledged inspirations in Women's Movement, but stressed that naming them is not enough, instead it is organized resistance that is the most necessary against racism, sexism, and economic oppression.^[4]

Part of Davis's statements on the Women's Movement were, "I think that as Black women we have a special contribution to make to the struggles that are unfolding in the Women's Movement. Yesterday there was a march for abortion rights. That's very important for us to fight for abortion rights. But at the same time if we want to know why it is that the Movement appears to be virtually all white, it is because still you have some white women's organizations who won't pick up the issue of sterilization."^[5]

Zoe Nicholson and the Equal Rights Amendment

In addition to an awareness of labor, class, and race, the 1980s brought a resurgence of effort to pass the Equal Rights Act (ERA). This had always been part of NOW’s mission. Zoe Nicholson is a lesbian activist, and has fought for the ERA beginning in the 1970s.

The Equal Rights Act (ERA) was an amendment to the US Constitution introduced in the 1920s after Women’s Suffrage. It would remove legal distinction between men and women, asserting that sex would not determine legal rights, especially surrounding laws that determine child support and job opportunities.

Zoe Nicholson address, "Where are the Women" at the Los Angeles United Nations Rally in 2012:

"I want a world where women and men and children attend the matter of life.
I want a world where everyone is well, thriving, prospering.
I want a world where women make all family planning and healthcare decisions.
I want a world with women at the helm, in parliaments,
on the front line of justice and law enforcement.
I want a world where women are empowered to lead the way to PEACE
I am so proud to be here with you today.
I am in love with equality and you are too 
It is just that simple.

Welcome to this moment
Welcome to the place our opponents fear the most.
Where we have drawn a line
We have drawn the line to say enough is enough
When we rise up together to say enough is enough
In all 50 states We UNITE to say, enough is enough.

Welcome to this moment
We are women and men who demand equality
We are LGBT who demand equality
We are First Nation who demand equality
We are First Immigrants who demand equality
We are the 99% who demand equality under the law.

Welcome to this moment
when the majority sees their power,
seizes their power,
exercises their power
The moment of UNITY has arrived
when we refuse to be divided, diminished, dismissed.

Welcome to this moment
The whole of Mother Earth is calling for change. 
The forces are collecting
The tipping point has arrived
From Egypt to Wall Street, from India to Mexico
The people are rising up and uniting for change

Welcome to this moment
Throw open your arms, be of good cheer,
we have found one another as never before 
I am in love with equality and you are too
It is just that simple.

Today Let Us declare:
Peace on Women
Peace on Immigrants
Peace on Queers
Peace on Workers
Peace on the Poor
Peace on America
Peace on Earth."

Citations
[1] Gabrielle Daniels, "First Black Lesbian Conference," Off Our Backs, December 1980, 4.
[2] Daniels, "First Black Lesbian Conference."
[3] Daniels, "First Black Lesbian Conference."
[4] Daniels, "First Black Lesbian Conference."
[5] Daniels, "First Black Lesbian Conference."
[6] "Timeline of the ERA until 1978," n.d., drawer 02-03, folder 6, subfolder 1, Subject Files, June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, CA. [7] Veronica Stracqualursi, “House Passes Joint Resolution to Remove ERA Deadline | CNN Politics,” CNN, March 17, 2021. https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/politics/congress-era-deadline-joint-resolutions/index.html.
[8] Casey Winkelman, "Biographical Note," Zoe Nicholson Collection, June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives.