THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Mary Farmer
“Feminist bookstores were simply a safe place.”
Co-founder with Joan E. Biren (JEB) of Moonforce Media, which distributed women’s films. Moonforce Media organized the first feminist film festivals in Washington, D.C. and also started The Women’s Film Circuit, highlighting the work of lesbian and feminist filmmakers, 1974. Owner of Lammas Bookstore, 1976. Distributor of Women’s Music. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute. D.C. Rape Crisis Center.
Interviewed by Mary Jean Collins, VFA Historian, November 2021
Photo 1. Mary Farmer and Beth Crimi in Washington, D.C.’s Lammas Books and More in 1978, PhotoJEB (Joan E. Biren). Photo 2. From left: owner-manager Mary Farmer, Susanna J. Sturgis and Tina Lunson, celebrating Lamma’s anniversary in 1983.
More About Mary:
- “Local Activist Wins Stonewall Award,” The Washington Blade, December 19, 1997
- Elizabeth Birch, Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign, introduces Mary Farmer on the ninth anniversary of National Coming Out Day, Washington D.C., October 11, 1996 (begins at 30:22)
- National LGBTQ Task Force website
- Records