Martha Shelley

Martha Shelley (born 1943- ) is a lesbian activist, feminist, writer, and poet.

Life and early work

Martha Altman, later Martha Shelley, was born on December 27, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents of Russian-Polish Jewish descent.^[1] Samuel R. Delany was a Bronx High School of Science friend. She was involved in a group based on the work of Harry Stack Sullivan which led to her first Anti-Vietnam War movement protest. In 1965 she graduated from City College. In November 1967 she went to her first meeting of the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) and of which she later became president.^[2] Because of FBI surveillance, members of the DOB were encouraged to take aliases. Altman took Shelley as a surname.^[3] While working for Barnard College, she joined the Student Homophile League^[4] and worked with Stephen Donaldson.

Gay Liberation Front

She was in Greenwich Village the night of the Stonewall riots with women who were starting a DOB chapter in Boston.^[5] Recognizing the significance of the event and being politically aware^[6] she proposed a protest march and as a result DOB and Mattachine sponsored a demonstration.^[7] According to an article in the program for the first San Francisco pride march she was one of the first four members of the Gay Liberation Front the others being Michael Brown, Jerry Hoose and Jim Owles.^[8] Certainly she was one of the twenty or so women and men who formed Gay Liberation Front immediately after Stonewall^[9] and was outspoken in many of their confrontations^[8]. She wrote for Come Out!.^[10]

Feminism

In 1970 she was instrumental in the Lavender Menace zap of the Second Congress to Unite Women.^[11] She produced the radio show Lesbian nation on New York's WBAI radio station.^[12] After moving to Oakland, California in October 1974, she was involved with the Women's Press Collective where she worked with Judy Grahn to produce Crossing the DMZ, In other words, Lesbians speak out and other books. Her poetry has appeared in Ms. magazine, 'Sunbury, The bright Medusa, We become new and other periodicals. Shelley appeared in the 2010 documentary Stonewall Uprising, an episode of the American Experience series.^[13]

Works and publications

Articles

• "Gay is good" in Out of the closets : voices of gay liberation. Douglas Books. 1972. ISBN 088209002X. 
• "Notes of a radical lesbian" in Sisterhood is powerful : an anthology from the Women's Liberation Movement. Vintage. 1970. ISBN 0394705392. 
• "Our passion shook the world" in Smash the church, smash the state : 40 years of gay liberation. City Lights Books. 2009. ISBN 0872864947. 

Short stories

• "Her wild barbarian heart" in Finding courage: writings by women. Crossing Press. 1989. ISBN 0895943786. 
• "In that number" in Common Lives/Lesbian Lives No. 30, 1989 ISSN 08916969
• "Walking the rim" in Word of mouth : 150 short-short stories by 90 women writers. Crossing Press. 1990. ISBN 0895943956. 
• "The cart o'tea belove" in Speaking for ourselves : short stories by Jewish Lesbians. Crossing Press. 1990. ISBN 0895944283. 

Books

• Crossing the DMZ. Women's Press Collective. 1974. 
• Lovers and mothers. Sefir. 1981. 
• Haggadah : a celebration of freedom. Aunt Lute Books. 1997. ISBN 1879960532. 
• The throne in the heart of the sea. Ebisu. 2011. ISBN 1892076837. 

Poetry in anthology

• We become new : poems by contemporary women. Bantam. 
• The Lesbian reader. Barn Owl. 1975. ISBN 0960962603. 
• The women's Seder sourcebook : rituals and readings for use at the Passover Seder. Jewish Lights. 2006. ISBN 9781580232326. 

Notes

1. ^ Anderson, Kelley. "Voices of feminism oral history project". http://www.smith.edu/library/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/Shelley.pdf. Retrieved 28-April-2011. 
2. ^ Jay, Karla (1999). Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation. Basic Books. ISBN 0465083641. 
3. ^ Marcus, Eric (1992). Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights. HarperCollins. ISBN 0060167084. 
4. ^ Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. M.E. Sharpe. 2010. ISBN 0765617617. 
5. ^ Duberman, Martin (1993). Stonewall. Dutton. ISBN 0525936025. 
6. ^ D'Emilio, John (1983). Sexual politics, sexual communities : the making of a homosexual minority in the United States 1940-1970. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226142655. 
7. ^ Gallo, Marcia (2006). Different daughters : a history of the Daughters of Bilitis and the rise of the Lesbian rights movement. New York: Carroll and Graf. ISBN 0786716347. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Carter, David (2004). Stonewall :the riots that sparked the gay revolution. St. Martin's. ISBN 03122000250. 
9. ^ Teal, Donn (1971). The Gay Militants. New York: Stein and Day. ISBN 0812813731. 
10. ^ Brass, Perry. "Coming out into Come Out!". http://www.outhistory.org/wiki/Coming_Out_Into_Come_Out!. 
11. ^ Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present. Psychology Press. 2001. ISBN 041522974x. 
12. ^ Love, Barbara (2006). Feminists who Changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 025203189x. 
13. ^ "Stonewall Uprising". http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/stonewall-participants/. Retrieved 6-May-2011. 

External links

• Ebisu Publications
• Stonewall Uprising website
• Radicalesbians in glbtq.com

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Name	Shelley, Martha
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Date of birth	1943
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