Legacy of Lesbian Activism

This program is FREE for Museum of Boulder members and SNAP EBT cardholders. Please show your card at the door for free admission.

Lesbians were leaders in organizing for LGBTQ+ rights, visibility, and community. Hear from a panel of women who led through art, creative expression, research, and working with institutions.

Panelists:

Glenda Russell is a clinical psychologist who has worked as a researcher, therapist, teacher, activist, writer, and community historian. She has been working to understand and write about Boulder’s LGBTQ+ history for many decades. You can follow her blog, Tools for Troubled Times.

Sue Coffee is the founding Artistic Director of Resonance Women’s Chorus and Sound Circle, and has also directed the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus and Unbound Voices at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. She has been involved in the national LGBTQ choral community for over 30 years, through GALA Choruses and the Sister Singers Network.

Louise Knapp was the owner/manager of The Word Is Out for 14 years, which sold feminist, gay and gender-related literature. From 1975 to 1990, she was a member of a study/action group called the Boulder Socialist Feminist Collective, which engaged in “guerrilla theater and art.”

Susan Pringle became a prevention specialist in the federally-funded program Substance Abuse Prevention Project, helping at-risk gay youth. The process of integrating gay issues into the health curriculum met resistance from the public but, in the end, a school-board meeting passed an anti-discrimination policy for LGBT individuals. In the late '90s, Susan spearheaded the application for a grant for what was later to become the Boulder County Prevention Connection, a countywide prevention program. Since retirement she has built community through dance.

Karen Raforth, Ph.D. Is a host and producer for KGNU radio's news show, OutSources. At CU Boulder, she initiated the LesBiGay series during a period when there was no regular LGBTQ+ programming on campus. She was a member of the LGB Task Force that was formed in the heyday of Coach Bill McCartney's attacks on gay rights from the CU podium. The task force investigated the climate for LGBTQ+ people on campus and made recommendations for positive change. Karen was appointed as an inaugural member of the Chancellor's Standing Committee on LGB Concerns. The committee carried out all the recommendations from the Task Force. She researched, designed, and staffed the first LGB center on campus. Her activism around LGBTQ+ issues and social justice more broadly has spanned many decades and touched the Boulder-Denver area.

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