Women played prominent roles in Lynn’s Shoemakers’ Strike of 1860, the fight for suffrage in the 1920s, and the second wave of feminism of the 1960s and 1970s. The fight for women’s rights and equality, building off the civil rights movement, laid the ideological and organizing foundation for LGBTQ+ rights. Feminism played a pivotal role in the gay liberation movement by challenging gender norms, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, fostering solidarity between diverse communities, and shaping the cultural and political landscape of the era. Lynn feminists helped form the North Shore Gay and Lesbian Alliance in 1978. With strong backing from the LGBTQ+ community in 2009, Lynn elected its first female mayor, Judy Flanagan Kennedy.