Ivy Bottini

Ivy Bottini (August 15, 1926 – February 25, 2021) was an American activist for women's and LGBTQ rights, and a visual artist.

Personal life and career Bottini was born Ivy Gaffney was born in Lynbrook, New York on August 15th, 1926, to parents Archie and Ivy. She graduated from Malverne High School in nearby Malverne, New York. From 1944 until 1947, she attended Pratt Institute School of Art, where she earned a certificate in advertising graphic design and illustration. She was employed for sixteen years at the east coast daily newspaper Newsday, until her move to Los Angeles in 1971. Soon after becoming president of the New York chapter of NOW in 1968 she came out as a lesbian.

Bottini later worked as a graphic artist.

Her memoir, The Liberation of Ivy Bottini: A Memoir of Love and Activism, as told to Judith V. Branzburg, was published by Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company in November 2018.

Bottini died in Florida on February 25, 2021, at the age of 94.

Activism In 1966, she helped found the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women. In 1970, she led a demonstration at the Statue of Liberty where she and others from the National Organization for Women's New York chapter draped an enormous banner over a railing which read "WOMEN OF THE WORLD UNITE!" During her time at the National Organization for Women's New York chapter she also introduced feminist consciousness raising, which was later adapted for all chapters in the organization to participate in.

When Kate Millett was speaking about sexual liberation at Columbia University in 1970, a woman in the audience asked her, "Why don't you say you're a lesbian, here, openly. You've said you were a lesbian in the past." Millett hesitantly responded, "Yes, I am a lesbian". A couple of weeks later, Time December 8, 1970 article "Women's Lib: A Second Look" reported that Millett admitted she was bisexual, which it said would likely discredit her as a spokesperson for the feminist movement because it "reinforce the views of those skeptics who routinely dismiss all liberationists as lesbians." In response, two days later a press conference was organized by Bottini and Barbara Love in Greenwich Village which led to a statement in the name of 30 lesbian and feminist leaders which declared their "solidarity with the struggle of homosexuals to attain their liberation in a sexist society". In 1977, she created and hosted the first Lesbian/Gay radio show on a mainstream network (KHJ in Los Angeles). In 1981 she was appointed by then-governor Jerry Brown as Commissioner for "California Commission on Aging", making her the first "out" lesbian or gay person to be appointed to a state board or commission.

In 1993, she co-founded the nonprofit organization Gay & Lesbian Elder Housing, which in 2007 developed Triangle Square, the first affordable housing complex for gay and lesbian senior citizens in the country. She also advocated for the creation of an AIDS memorial in West Hollywood. She participated in an Oral History project by The Lavender Effect, which documented her personal life and work as an activist.

Awards In 1991, she received Drama Logues' "Best Performance Award" for Against the Rising Sea.

In 2001, in the Matthew Shepard Memorial Triangle a tree was planted in her honor, and a plaque was placed at the foot of it.

In 2005, she was awarded the Cultural Icon Award by the Tom of Finland Foundation.

In 2007, she received the Morris Kight Lifetime Achievement Award from Christopher Street West Los Angeles LGBT Pride.