“Come Out Slugging!”: The Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, 1972–1975

This article chronicles the formation of the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA) and its creative grassroots activism from 1972 to 1975. Studying ALFA offers a critical window into how lesbian feminists were envisioning political organizing, coalition building, and sports in the New South. ALFA utilized radical strategies learned in prior movements, from antiwar to civil rights activism, to create a lesbian feminist politic in Little Five Points, Atlanta. Drawing on oral histories, this essay studies ALFA activism to challenge media coverage of lesbian and gay life, pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), utilize the “softball strategy,” and build regional networks through the Great Southeast Lesbian Conference. ALFA involvement in campaigns to pass the ERA highlight the complexities of coalition building in the women’s movement. ALFA’s creation of an out-lesbian softball team in 1974, which widened membership and raised visibility, demonstrates the use of recreation as an organizing tool.