Abbott, a U.S. activist and writer, was raised
on and near military bases by her mother and grandmother. She
attended Smith College in Massachusetts and the University of New
Mexico, earned an M.S. in urban planning at Columbia University,
and working in publishing in New York City where she would later
become the first openly lesbian member of a community board.
In 1970, she and her then-lover, Barbara Love,
were among the first feminist activists to join the emerging
gay liberation movement. Abbott and Love sought to create
alliances between women and organized a vast consciousness raising
group that would inspire the creation of 21 other similar groups.
In addition to helping create Radicalesbians, Abbott and Love
published Sappho
Was a Right-On Woman: A Liberated View of Lesbianism in
1972.
Abbott acted as coordinator for the National
Organization for Women's first National
Sexuality and Lesbianism Task Force and was a founding of the
board of directors of the National Gay Task Force, which would
later become the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force.
