Sonia Johnson

Born in 1936, feminist activist and writer Sonia Johnson was excommunicated from the Mormon Church for her outspoken support of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which the church opposed.

Johnson began speaking out in support of the ERA in 1977 and founded an organization, Mormons for ERA. National exposure occurred with her 1978 testimony in front of the U. S. Senate's Constitutional Rights Subcommittee, and she continued speaking and promoting the ERA and denouncing her church's political activities against the amendment. After a well-publicized church trial in December 1979, Johnson was excommunicated. Afterwards, she continued promoting the ERA as a speaker at numerous functions throughout the country as well as television talk shows. She wrote an autobiographical book about her embrace of feminism, titled From Housewife to Heretic (1981). Other, later books include:

• Telling the Truth (1987)
• Wildfire: Igniting the She/Volution (1990)
• Going Out of Our Minds: The Metaphysics of Liberation (1991)
• The Ship that Sailed Into the Living Room: Sex and Intimacy Reconsidered
• Out of This World: A Fictionalized True-Life Adventure (1994)

Johnson's excommunication coincided with her divorce from Rick Johnson. In 1984, she became the U.S. Citizens Party's national candidate for the U.S. Presidency. She later became a lesbian separatist and founded Wildfire, a short-lived commune for women that disbanded in 1993.