lavender menace

noun

The presence of lesbians or lesbian activism in the feminist movement, seen as a threat to the movement at large.

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Meanings

nounlavender menace (uncountable)
  1. ironicoftenuncountableThe presence of lesbians or lesbian activism in the feminist movement, seen as a threat to the movement at large.
    1 more example

    It's an old story that lesbians and gay men have always been a part of movements for justice. However, it is only recently, as queers have come into their own political awareness, that this has been more than an unacknowledged, unreciprocated contribution of gay and lesbian spirit. […] We were the lavender menace of the early women's movement and the bourgeois decadent lifestylists of the sectarian New Left.

    1982 August 28, Scott Brookie, “Making Love, Not War”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 7, page 5
Cite this entry
APA

lavender menace. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lavender%20menace

MLA

“lavender menace.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lavender%20menace. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lavender menace,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lavender%20menace.

Source: lavender menace on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.