Using her passion about human rights, she joined the Bobby Kennedy Presidential election campaign in California in 1968. When he was assassinated, she decided to come out as a lesbian and a feminist and work to change laws in California. Coming out publicly was rare in those days before Stonewall; homosexuality was still against the law in California, was condemned by the Church, and considered to be a mental disease. She became co-chair of the California Committee for Sexual Law Reform and worked for the passage of Assemblyman Willie Brown's Assembly Bill 489 (Consenting Adult Sex Bill). She read her poem "Dear Dora/Dangerous Derek Diesel Dyke" to state legislators, including Lt. Gov. Mervyn M. Dymally who voted to break a tie in the California Senate and cause the bill to become law in 1975.