We Set the Night on Fire

We Set the Night on Fire is the story of Martha Shelley’s roots as the daughter of refugees and undocumented immigrants in New York in the 1940s and '50s, and her development as a political activist and a central figure in the intersection of the gay and women’s movements of the 1960s and '70s. 

Shelley describes her childhood during the McCarthy era and subsequent civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements and her struggles coming out as a lesbian at a time when being gay made her a criminal.

She rose to become a public speaker for the Daughters of Bilitis, organized the first gay march in response to Stonewall, and then cofounded the Gay Liberation Front. She coproduced the newspaper, Come Out!, worked on the women’s takeover of Rat newspaper, and took a central role in the Lavender Menace action.

Martha Shelley’s story is a lesbian document that gives context and necessary humanity in the historical record.