Sidney Abbott papers

Abbott was born in Washington, D.C. in 1937 to a military family that moved around the country. Nonconformity contributed to a checkered educational career in a succession of high schools, prep schools, and at Smith College where she was asked to leave during her senior year because of academic problems, her open lesbianism, and an ongoing identity crisis. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of New Mexico. In the 1960s while working in New York as a writer and editor she earned a master's degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University where she met Kate Millett and became a member of one of the earliest consciousness-raising groups, which included Millett and other notable feminists. In 1972 she co-authored with Barbara Love the landmark book,"Sappho Was a Right On Woman: A Liberated View of Lesbianism,"which pointed out discrimination against lesbians and presented ideas for a liberated future for them. Abbott worked in New York in city government positions related to social policy, mental health and planning. She was a founding member of the National Gay Task Force and a board member and coordinator of the National Organization for Women's task force for civil rights for lesbians. At the time the collection was donated she was currently at work on a book about supergroup 1. Abbott died on April 15, 2015.