Pokey Anderson at IWY
Pokey co-founded the Houston Gay Political Caucus, was on the board of NGTF, and was proprietor
of Inklings, Houston's lesbian bookshop. While attending the IWY, she had the "We Are Everywhere"
balloons printed for the NGTF. On the day of the conference's vote on the lesbian rights plank of
the package of resolutions. Pokey organized volunteers to blow up and quietly distribute the
balloons in the gallery, waiting until the measure passed. After Betty Friedan's speech, in which
she dramatically reversed her long opposition to including lesbian rights in the women's
movement, the measure passed overwhelmingly.
Pokey recalls: "People were dancing in the aisles and in the chairs, and the balloons from the
gallery upstairs filled the air. It was quite a moment!"
