ABSTRACT
US gay and lesbian activists faced many familiar challenges after 1973, but a new set of problems developed in this period. The rise of the New Right and Christian Right, their acquisition of significant government power, and the conservative shift in national politics meant that the gay and lesbian movement confronted formidable new obstacles. Many liberal lesbian feminists worked in electoral politics and in local, state, regional, and national groups that lobbied and litigated. Radical lesbian feminism existed in many intersecting configurations, but there were several strong tendencies. One was lesbian cultural feminism, which celebrated female values, encouraged women’s autonomy, and explored lesbian separatism. Gay and lesbian activists also targeted businesses that engaged in particularly egregious forms of discrimination. Religious and other types of conservatives had attacked homosexuality in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, but in the 1970s they began to focus more intensively on the subject.
