The Lesbian Avengers are an activist group with a sense of humor, said Sine Anahita, coordinator for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Student Services, during a presentation Wednesday afternoon in the Memorial Union.

Anahita said Lesbian Avengers was started in 1992 in New York City and quickly spread to San Francisco, Washington, Charlotte, Chicago and many other urban areas.

They first took action in 1992 against a New York school that refused to implement LGBT issues in the classroom, Anahita said. The group went to the school on the first day of classes and handed out rainbow balloons that stated, “Ask about lesbian lives.” Also on the scene was an all-lesbian marching band playing “We Are Family.”

By 1993, they were all over the Internet with catchy slogans such as “Snatch the Power!” “We Recruit!” and “Be the Bomb You Throw,” Anahita said.

She emphasized that the avengers focus their energy against systems — heterosexism, racism, classism and ableism — not individuals. Their strategy is marked by humor, guerrilla art and street theater, she said.

“Dyke marches,” organized by the Lesbian Avengers, Anahita said, began in response to the fear that lesbians would be invisible among the massive numbers of gay men at the 1993 March On Washington. In order to make lesbians known at the 1993 march, the Avengers held their First Annual Dyke Kiss in front of the White House.

“I love the humor of this group,” Anahita said. “I hope to incorporate it into what I do with the LGBT, such as using retro ’60s stuff to form brochures on ‘How To Tell Your Parents.'”

Anahita said there are several tactics of the San Francisco Lesbian Avengers she likes, including the singing of Christmas carols such as “Lesbians We Have Heard On High,” “I’ll be a Homo for Christmas” and “Silent Night, Horny Dyke.”