We Set the Night on FireMartha Shelley didn't start out in life wanting to become a gay activist, or an activist of any kind. The daughter of Jewish refugees and undocumented immigrants in New York City, she grew up during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s. Inspired by the civil rights and anti Vietnam War movements that followed, Shelley struggled with coming out as a lesbian at a time when being gay made her a criminal. Shelley rose to become a public speaker for