Edie Daly

  • Alexis Pauline Gumbs interview
Headshot of Edie Daly

Edie Daly, born in 1937, is a grassroots organizer, activist, and Alternatives to Violence facilitator. She came out as a lesbian in 1974. In 1981, she opened a women’s bookstore and cofounded the Women’s Energy Bank (WEB) that for 24 years, held monthly salons for women. In conjunction, she published the monthly Feminist publication, Womyn’s Words, for more than 30 years.

Edie Daly’s activism took her to Bosnia in 1993, where she engaged in popular diplomacy during the wars there. In 1995, she boarded the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) “Peace Train,” to travel from Europe to Beijing for the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women. 

Edie Daly’s story appears in Without Apology, published by the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project, OLOHP.org.  She published her memoir, Old Lesbian Memory Quilt, in 2020. She is cofacilitator of Lesbians WriteOn.

Edie Daly and her life partner for more than 25 years, Jackie Mirkin, got married in California in 2008, They live in Gulfport, Florida, working for peace and justice in the world.