racism – Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Merril Mushroom: Lifelong Feminist Butch, Radical Advocate, and so much more

Merril Mushroom at her present home in 2022. Photo by Jill Spisak.

Merril Mushroom came out in the 1950s in Miami Beach, Florida, where she experienced homophobia and racism while learning the rules of being butch or femme. A lifelong butch, she has written scores of articles about lesbian life, including a play, Bar Dykes, that has been produced in San Francisco, California; New York City; and other cities in between. Her interview describes growing up Jewish in a city with signs saying “No Jews Allowed,” teaching elementary school in Harlem in the 1960s, and moving to rural middle Tennessee, where she has lived since the 1970s.

Posted on May 5, 2025 Posted in Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services Tagged with AAUW, adoption, Alabama, ALFA, American Association of University Women, Anti-war movement, antisemitism, Association for Mentally Ill Children, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, Bank Street School, Brown v Board of Education, Caffe Cino, Camp Skytop, Charlie Johns, Coleman Younger, Dowelltown, Duke archives, Ed Sullivan, Feminist activism, feminist movement, Florida, Florida State University, Francis Lee, Freedom Bus, Gadsden, Gainesville, Girlfriends magazine, Gloria Steinem, Greenwich Village, Harlem, head shop, Jack, Jewish, John Harris, Johns Committee, Julia Penelope, Julia Penelope Stanley, Knoxville, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, lesbian, Lesbian Home Movie Project, Lincoln Legion of Lesbians, LSD, McCarthy hearings, Miami Beach, Millbrook Group, motorcycle messenger, New York, New York City, New York MIX Festival, OLAC, old lesbians organizing for change, Paranoia, Penny Stanley, photoanimator, psychedelics, puppeteer, racism, Ram Dass, Raspberry Exercises, Rosman, Sharon Thompson, Sinister Wisdom, Southeast, southern, Tampa, Tennessee, Tennessee Red Book, Timothy Leary, Toast of the Town, Tommy Trent, University of Florida, University of Miami, vaudeville

Mary Anne Adams, Champion for Change

Mary Anne Adams

A dedicated woman’s journey, making her way from the segregated south, through the civil rights movement, into today’s complex lesbian feminist environment.

Posted on July 10, 2023 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Lesbian-Owned Enterprises, Social and Political Groups, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services Tagged with aging, Angela Denise Davis, Audre Lorde, Audre Lorde Scholarship Fund, Black Lesbians, Black nationalists, Black Student Union, blind, Community Engagement Core, Eddie Sandifer, feminist, First Existentialist Congregation, Frederica Sands, Gay Community News, intersectionality, LGBTQ, NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging, old lesbians organizing for change, OLOC, racism, Rev Lanier Clance, Rev. Wayne Johnson, Sister Harriet, Southern Rural Women’s Network, the Black House, Tougaloo College, Womonwrites, ZAMI, ZAMI NOBLA

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie: Spiritual Warrior-Singer

Reverend Elder Carolyn Mobley-Bowie

“Black people are my people, gay folk are my people, and church people are my people.”

Posted on October 24, 2022 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services, Spirituality and Religion Tagged with AALGA, Adrain Bowie, African American Lesbian and Gay Alliance, Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus, Atlanta Georgia, Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance ALFA, feminism, home missionary, Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism, Houston Texas, Interdenominational Theological Center, ITC, Metropolitan Community Church MCC, racism, Richmond Virginia, Sanford Florida, Second Baptist MCC Houston, Shiloh Baptist Church Orlando, SISTERS, Southern Baptist, Southern Baptist Convention, womanism

Saralyn Chesnut of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA)

Saralyn Chesnut is second from left in this photo from the 2013 Creating Change conference. Pat Hussain is at far right.

“ALFA’s lasting legacy is in women’s lives. The field of women’s studies was not just created by the feminist movement, but by the lesbian-feminist movement.”

Posted on May 19, 2022 Posted in Culture and the Arts, Publishing, Publications, and Booksellers, Social and Political Groups, Social Justice, Women’s Health, and Social Services Tagged with AIDS, Amanda Gable, Amy Darden (Estelle), Atalanta, butch and femme roles, Charis Books and More, Chris Carroll, communal households, Communist Party, dinner co-ops, drag queens, dyke march, EEOC, Eleanor Smith, Elizabeth Knowlton, Emory Office of LGBT Life, Feminary, Feminist Women’s Health Center, Gay and Lesbian Pride, gay liberation, gender, Georgians for the ERA, Hairy Hobbits, Hobbit Habit, Hummingbird Heights, Julia Penelope (Stanley), Lambda Legal, lesbian feminism, Little Five Points (L5P), Lorraine Fontana, mental illness, Moosewood Cookbook, National Gay Task Force, nonmonogamy, Our Bodies, Our Right to Love, Ourselves, patriarchy, pulp novels, racism, rap/Consciousness-raising groups, Reagan, Red Dyke Theatre, Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle, Sappho’s Quarry, Saralyn Chesnut, Sinister Wisdom, Southern Baptist, Stonewall riots, UGA, Vicki Gabriner, white southerner, woman-identified woman, Womansong Theatre, women in print movement, women’s movement, Women’s Policy Group, women’s softball, WRFG

Tag: racism

Merril Mushroom: Lifelong Feminist Butch, Radical Advocate, and so much more

Mary Anne Adams, Champion for Change

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie: Spiritual Warrior-Singer

Saralyn Chesnut of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA)