Controversies
Down with Racism, Sexism, and Anti-Gay Bigotry! flier, 1977. Marjorie Randal National Women's Conference Collection.
The Women's Caucus and Youth Against War and Fascism were the women's and youth organizations, respectively, of the Workers World Party (WWP). Active since 1959, the WWP is a Marxist/Leninist revolutionary socialist party. As part of WWP's goal for social equality, its women's and youth divisions engaged in the Equal Rights for Women movement, producing this flier to raise awareness of the opposition's efforts to infiltrate and derail the movement.
"I Want Your Daughter..." flier, 1977. Marjorie Randal National Women's Conference Collection.
This flier from 1977 reads as a letter from the influential lesbian and feminist activist Pokey Anderson. Anderson vied for a position as a Houston delegate for the IWY conference. In this flier, she lists several reasons for her eligibility for the position. In addition to her many qualifications, Pokey wrote a moving letter to the mothers of Houston, opening with "I want your daughter to grow up free to be anything she wants to be. I have a dream that someday all of our daughters -- and our sons -- will be welcome members of the global human community." Anderson's opening line, I want your daughter, references the popular homophobic anxiety that lesbians were predatory towards young girls, when in fact she was doing just the opposite -- fighting for the rights of all girls, regardless of their sexual orientation or skin color.
"Gay Plank Proves Meet Worthwhile," December 1977. Houston Area NOW Collection.
A letter from the editor discusses the IWY conference's Lesbian Rights plank. The controversy surrounding the LRP arose from both external sources, from the rhetoric of the so-called Pro-Family Coalition, and internal, between factions in the conference that did and did not support addressing lesbian rights in the national plan. Nevertheless, the LRP was adopted by the end of the conference, signaling a compromise within the conference that the national plan should be inclusive of all women's experiences.
Calling all ladies... You are needed in Houston!, 1977. Houston Area NOW Collection.
Not all women were proponents for progressive changes at the National Women's Conference in 1977. In a publication from the American Party, this article dated October 1977 demands for women to show up in opposition to abortion rights and the ERA. The organization claims to be an outlet for "pro family" ideology and encourages women to come to Houston with their husbands in tow. The document also outlines a proposed "big rally" that welcomed American Party members who wanted to protest against the National Women's Conference, and denotes how to secure housing since the IWY had placed a hold on most hotel rooms in Houston by that time.