Maxine Wolfe

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Maxine Wolfe

Graduate Center, CUNY.[2][3]

Maxine Wolfe
Portrait of Maxine Wolfe from the Lesbian History Archives c. 2017
Born1941
EducationCity University of New York, PhD
Alma materBrooklyn College, B.A., 1961
EmployerLesbian Herstory Archives
Organization(s)ACT UP, Lesbian Avengers, Queer Nation
Known forLesbian activism, ACT UP activism

Early life and education

Wolfe was raised in Brooklyn, New York, in a Jewish immigrant household described by Wolfe as "poor."[4] At age 16, Wolfe became a first-generation college student at Brooklyn College, graduating with her B.A. in 1961.[3] Wolfe engaged in civil rights activism, including attending the 1963 March on Washington and working on economic and civil rights issues with the Brooklyn Congress of Racial Equality (Brooklyn CORE).[4] Wolfe went on to obtain her master's and Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology at the City University of New York.[3][2]

Personal life

Wolfe was married after graduating from college at the age of 19.[4] Reflecting on this marriage in 2003, Wolfe said:

"...That’s what everybody I know did. It’s really hard for people to believe that about me because I think that people do not understand how much the world has changed. But, the world that I lived in was a working-class immigrant world...I never even knew what college was like. ...I just think it was, like, expected. It was a way to leave home. It was a whole number of things, and I just knew it was wrong three days after I did it, and I had no idea what to do about that and I, seriously, spent 10 years trying to figure out what to do."[4]

Wolfe began to consider herself a lesbian in the late 1970s.[3][5][4]

Activism

In the late

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1977–1979 (SITE), over reproductive rights among other related topics. Wolfe then joined the Lesbian Action Committee, finding extreme difficulty in recruiting other women who had not yet “come out.” The committee began with educational information and demonstrations, which were originally perceived by the public as them trying to “turn everyone lesbian.” As the Lesbian Action Committee evolved, they wanted to work with the Reproductive Rights National Network to present information about lesbian-focused material. Despite their intentions, some people in CARASA didn't want this type of publicity, distancing themselves from Wolfe and the Lesbian Action Committee. Because the Human Life Amendment was being considered by Congress, some members of the group participated in civil disobedience by disrupting the hearings in Washington, which resulted in arrests and convictions.[4]

As the Family Protection Act bill was released in 1980, the coalition named Committee Against Racism Anti-Semitism, Sexism, and Heterosexism (CRASH), was born, consisting of Maxine Wolfe from CARASA, Joan Gibbs representing Dykes Against Racism Everywhere, Laurie Morton representing Radical Women, Naomi Brussel representing the Committee of Lesbian and Gay Men Socialists and other organizations include Lavender Left and Black and White Men Together. This coalition held a conference over the Family Protection Act and began doing demonstrations about the Human Life Amendment and many other things. There was not a mass movement at the time, yet CRASH demonstrated at the Neighborhood Church where 500 people showed up, setting the stage for future traditions within the gay, feminist, and later AIDS movements.

In 1985, the

AIDS research, pharmaceuticals, and more access to care and education.[4]

In Let The Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993, Sarah Schulman writes, "Scanning the interviews I conducted with a wide range and demographic of ACT UPers, the two names that emerge most often in reference to internal leadership are clearly Maxine Wolfe and Mark Harrington...these two were repeatedly named as profound influences."[5] Schulman also writes, "These are the two people most often blamed with ACT UP's downfall and self-defeat, and the two most frequently named at the center of ACT UP's victories and strengths."

Wolfe left ACT UP in 1997. As of 2004, she lives in Brooklyn, New York.[4]

References

  1. ^ "All Things LGBTQ - Maxine Wolfe". CCTV Center for Media and Democracy. 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780810872264
    .
  3. ^ a b c d Congress, The Library of. "Wolfe, Maxine - LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies | Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)". id.loc.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Hubbard, Jim. "ACT UP Oral History Project" (PDF). ACT UP Oral History. ACT UP. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-06. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  5. ^
    OCLC 1182573401
    .
  6. ^ Kornbluh, Felicia (2023-01-08). "Lesbians, Feminisms, and Reproductive Rights Movements: How Lesbian Politics Tore CARASA (the Committee for Abortion Rights and Against Sterilization Abuse) Apart". AHA. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

Further reading

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