Throughout the 1970s, lesbians of color began to organize apart from white gay rights and feminist groups. Just as lesbian feminists questioned their ties to gay men, many women of color began to seek a better understanding of their own interests and the place of their experience in the larger gay and lesbian rights struggle. Both with gay men of color and on their own, lesbians of color created organizations to explore and address their concerns. Groups like Salsa Soul Sisters (1974), Lesbianas Unidas (1980), and the Lesbian and Gay Asian Alliance (1979) began to force white gay men and lesbians to think about the impact of racism on gay and lesbian communities and activism.

At the same time, women of color writers and scholars began to recover aspects of their own cultures and history. Writer, editor, and historian Barbara Smith has contributed several volumes on the African-American feminist and lesbian experience, including Home Girls (1983) and All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave (1981). Moraga and Anzaldua's This Bridge Called My Back was also a groundbreaking work. The poetry and essays of Audre Lorde made both the personal and political force of this exploration clear, urged and inspired women of color to speak out, and challenged all women to engage with each other across their differences.