ABSTRACT

Right-wing forces in this country gain strength and control over our lives and more people begin to organize to fight the attacks, lesbian feminists have to make some difficult decisions about how to proceed as a movement. The women's movement had been consistently active and often successful in organizing women to take their own lives and oppression seriously, many groups recognize that they need to include us in their organizing. Clearly lesbians and feminists share much common ground with other progressive forces. But in deciding to work together we have to ask what the terms of the relationship should be. One of the authors recently attended a meeting of Ad Hoc Coalition Against the Reagan Program a loose coalition of various progressive groups. The original draft of their platform had no mention of any aspect of lesbian or gay rights. Since Reagan's inauguration, liberal feminist groups have also taken giant leaps to the right.