To the editor: Ann Friedman's opinion piece touched home. While I didn't know it at the time, I was a second-wave feminist in 1962 attending Pasadena City College. When I learned I had to participate in the Rose Queen process as part of my physical education class, I adamantly refused. My instructor was stunned; I had to write an essay about sports instead, which I was happy to do. I'd never heard the word feminism at that point, but my goodness, when Phyllis Schlafly started her campaign to keep women at home, I was outraged.

It's an adage that one should not speak ill of the dead. But when conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly died last week, I was among the many liberal writers who didn't hesitate to call her a hatemonger. Schlafly, who built her 40-year career on stoking intolerance, was a vocal supporter of segregation and discrimination in housing, voting, and the workplace. She pushed to make anti-gay activism a core feature of the conservative movement. Even as the national consensus evolved toward greater rights for many Americans who had once been marginalized, Schlafly remained staunchly opposed to progress.