In the 1960s, Brown started to get involved in politics. She became active in the American Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movement, the Gay Liberation movement and the feminist movement. She helped start the Student Homophile League and claims to have participated in the Stonewall riots in New York City, along with Martha Shelley. Ms. Shelley states that she was not in the bar with Ms. Brown at the time, and was simply passing by the riots, thinking they were an antiwar demonstration. Brown joined the new National Organization for Women, but left in February 1970 when Betty Friedan said anti-gay things and the organization tried to distance itself from lesbian organizations.