"There are lesbians, God knows... if you came up through lesbian circles in the forties and fifties in New York... who were not feminist and would not call themselves feminists"

This quote by Audre Lorde speaks with the diversity of the lesbian community in the 1940s and 1950s in New York. Lorde acknowledges that there were lesbians who did not identify as feminists, although they were part of the lesbian neighborhood. This quote highlights the truth that not all lesbians were feminists, and that there was a range of beliefs and identities within the lesbian neighborhood. It also talks to the truth that feminism was not as widely accepted or understood in the 1940s and 1950s as it is today. Lorde's quote is a suggestion that the lesbian community varied and complex, which not all lesbians determined as feminists. It is likewise a reminder that feminism has come a long way because the 1940s and 1950s, and that it is now more widely accepted and comprehended.