Custody Action for Lesbian Mothers (CALM, Norman grantee 1976–1977, 1992–1993) was founded in 1974 in Philadelphia by Rosalie Davies, a lesbian rights activist who went to law school after fighting her own custody battle. CALM was the only organization in the country dedicated exclusively to fighting for the custody and visitation rights of lesbian mothers. Operating on a shoestring budget, Davies ran the organization for years without receiving a salary, sustained by the urgency of the work and the commitment of its network of volunteer attorneys. CALM provided litigation support, legal research, and public education to women across the country who faced the loss of their children simply because of their sexual orientation.

Lesbian mothers had custody rights routinely stripped away in courtrooms across the country — even in cases where the child’s father had been abusive, absent, or never provided financial support — despite extensive research demonstrating that a parent’s sexual orientation had no adverse effect on children. For many women, CALM’s support and its national clearinghouse of case law were the only things standing between them and losing their children entirely.

When two women lawyers in Pennsylvania wrote to the Norman Foundation seeking support for CALM’s work, the foundation didn’t hesitate to step up. As Andrew Norman later recalled, the foundation’s approach to unconventional requests was never “Do we dare?” but rather “If we don’t go first, who will?”