Ivy Bottini

Ivy Bottini, a renowned lesbian activist, helped found the National Organization for Women’s first chapter in New York City in 1966. She toured the country for several years performing “The Many Faces of Woman,” a lesbian feminist one-woman show. And she is the subject of a book titled "The Liberation of Ivy Bottini -- a Memoir of Love and Activism." Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her as the first out gay or lesbian person to the California Commission on Aging. And in the early 1980s she co-founded the Los Angeles Lesbian/Gay Police Advisory Board. In 1983 Bottini founded AIDS Network LA, the first AIDS organization, which focused on collecting and sharing information about the epidemic. In 1984 she was one of the founders of AIDS Project LA (now APLA Health). Bottini, a long-time West Hollywood resident, recently moved with her daughter to Sebring, Fla.