Jill Johnston, Village Voice lesbian-feminist ex-columnist, dies at 81

Jill Johnston, lesbian-feminist writer, dies at 81

HARTFORD, Conn. — Jill Johnston, who chronicled feminism, lesbianism and upheaval in the 1960s and 1970s as a weekly columnist for the Village Voice, has died. She was 81.

Her spouse, Ingrid Nyeboe (NIGH’-Boe), says Johnston died Saturday at Hartford Hospital from complications from a stroke she suffered earlier this month. The couple lived in Sharon in northwestern Connecticut.

Johnston began as a Village Voice dance critic in 1959. Her website says she adopted a “daring, experimental” writing style in the late 1960s in writing her weekly cultural column, a style she said she later tried to undo.

Her 1973 book, “Lesbian Nation: The Feminist Solution,” challenged male-dominated society and has been described as a “bible for militant feminists.”

Funeral arrangements are pending.