Maxine Wolfe

Maxine Wolfe (born April 1941) is an American author, scholar, and activist for AIDS, civil rights, lesbian rights, and reproductive rights. Wolfe is a co-founder of the Lesbian Avengers, a coordinator at the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and a member of Queer Nation. Wolfe is currently a Professor Emerita of Women's and Gender Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Wolfe went on to obtain her master's and PhD in Environmental psychology at the City University of New York. Wolfe then additionally became a member of that committee. She then demonstrated against Joseph Califano, the 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. 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.

Personal life Wolfe was married after graduating from college at the age of 19. 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." Wolfe began to consider herself a lesbian in the late 1970s.