Ivy Bottini (August 15, 1926 – February 25, 2021) was an American activist for women's and LGBT rights, and a visual artist.

From 1944 until 1947, she attended Pratt Institute School of Art, where she earned a certificate in advertising graphic design and illustration.

[3] She was employed for sixteen years at the east coast daily newspaper Newsday, until her move to Los Angeles in 1971.

[1] Despite her attraction to women, Bottini did not pursue lesbian relationships, due to the cultural norms of the time.

[1] Leading up to the marriage, Bottini began experiencing physical symptoms involving her ability to swallow food properly.

[3][4] She also studied acting at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and performed a one-woman show, The Many Faces of Women, nationwide.

[2] However, later in 1970 Betty Friedan engineered the expulsion of lesbians from the National Organization for Women's New York chapter, including Bottini.

[14] When Kate Millett was speaking about sexual liberation at Columbia University in 1970, a woman in the audience asked her, "Why don't you say you're a lesbian, here, openly.

[15] A couple of weeks later, Time's December 8, 1970 article "Women's Lib: A Second Look" reported that Millett admitted she was bisexual, which it said would likely discredit her as a spokesperson for the feminist movement because it "reinforce[d] the views of those skeptics who routinely dismiss all liberationists as lesbians.

"[15][16] In response, two days later a press conference was organized by Bottini and Barbara Love in Greenwich Village which led to a statement in the name of 30 lesbian and feminist leaders which declared their "solidarity with the struggle of homosexuals to attain their liberation in a sexist society".

[22][23] She participated in an Oral History project by The Lavender Effect, which documented her personal life and work as an activist.

[7][25] In 2001, in the Matthew Shepard Memorial Triangle a tree was planted in her honor, and a plaque was placed at the foot of it.

In 2007, she received the Morris Kight Lifetime Achievement Award from Christopher Street West Los Angeles LGBT Pride.