Women
Barbara McLean, Founder and Sheila Quinn President, President
We lesbians that worked on the New Hampshire Pride Committee were having the last barbeque of the summer of 1992, when we found we all agreed on one thing - there was no social organization for lesbians in New Hampshire and in Northern Massachusetts. How could these women meet? There were no bars for lesbians in this area. Barbara McLean was leaving the New Hampshire Pride Committee and was asked to take on the task of organizing a social lesbian organization because there were so few opportunities for women to meet other women to develop friendships and partners.
Barbara, past president of Daughters of Bilitis in Chicago and Los Angeles and the Lesbian Feminists in Los Angeles, spoke to several women in Southern New Hampshire and got one of them, Lisa, to offer her home for the first meeting. She then sent an announcement about the start of the organization to all the gay and lesbian media in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and announced the first meeting in January 1993. 53 women showed up for the first meeting.
The organization was appropriately named Women Meeting Women. A bylaws committee established a steering committee of 13 to lead the organization and made the group’s newsletter the primary tool of organization and communication. It was decided early on to be inclusive and to not charge for dues beyond the newsletter subscription. The primary source of income would be dances. We would earn our keep.
From 53 women in 1993 to 1800 today, from a newborn organization to the largest organization for lesbians and bisexual women in New England, Women Meeting Women now boasts the most varied list of activities and interests in the area. From dances, to book groups, rap groups and support groups, sports, poker, bicycling, hiking, poetry, writers, trips to museums, plays and musicals, P-Town, Foxwoods, New York City _ you name it, we do it. We have fostered more friendships and relationships than any other group in New England.
Designed to meet the needs of the entire community, the organization is structured to change as needed, to cultivate new leadership to avoid burnout, and to encourage the formation of other groups to meet the needs of the community. As it advances toward its tenth year, it continues to meet the challenge of satisfying the changing needs of the community it serves. For more information about the organization, please contact us at 603-883-9969 or at the following email address: WMWOMEN@yahoo.com.