原书名：Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement
作者：Marcia M. Gallo
“我们当时在与教会、沙发和法庭作斗争。”
这些是活动家德尔·马丁（Del Martin）和菲利斯·莱昂Phyllis Lyon描述50年一小群女同性恋者挑战美国宗教领袖、精神科医生、心理学家、律师和立法者对女性同性之爱的普遍妖魔化时的话。这两位女性始终坚称她们无意发动一场革命。1955年9月，马丁和莱昂接受邀请与另外三对女同性恋伴侣在旧金山会面谈话，主要议题是为“女同性恋女孩”成立一个社交俱乐部。从她们的讨论中诞生了比利蒂斯女儿会（Daughters of Bilitis1 ；简称DOB），这是美国第一个全国性的女同性恋权利组织。
在那个被历史学家称为沉寂的社会政治时代，女儿会的女性激进主义提供了一个独特案例。女儿会用来鼓励、动员女同性恋者的独特组织方式——历史学家马克·斯坦（Marc Stein）称之为“激进的体面”组织方式——在压制性政治环境中提供了行之有效的策略范例。
要全面理解女儿会，就必须将其置于冷战背景之下。正如历史学家露丝·罗森（Ruth Rosen）所写，“五十年代是一个认知失调的时代：数百万人信奉那些与自身经历并不相符的理想。这十年间，异议被隔离，顺从之风盛行”（1）。尽管阿尔弗雷德·金赛（Alfred Kinsey）战后对人类的研究表明，“正常”的美国男女中普遍存在同性恋倾向，但男同性恋者和女同性恋者还是会因为仅仅喜欢“错误”的性别，而遭到被联邦政府解雇，被私营企业开除，并且被剥夺对子女的监护权。他们在同性恋友好酒吧和餐馆里经常受到当地扫黄组的骚扰，还常常被捕，随后当他们的姓名和住址被刊登在家乡报纸的头版时，又会遭受羞辱。那个时代的“同性恋”等同于“变态”以及“颠覆分子”。
最初，“女儿们”在公开与保密之间小心翼翼地保持平衡。她们最早开展的项目之一就是在客厅里就女同性恋者关心的问题进行一系列讨论。她们把这些以咖啡为媒介的非正式聚会称为“闲聊咖啡会”。参加者不必表明自己是同性恋者； 该组织的成员资格向所有有兴趣进一步了解同性恋“问题”的女性开放。甚至该组织所选择的名称也为其提供了避免意外曝光的掩护。通过采用一首晦涩的19世纪情诗（《比莉蒂斯之歌》Songs of Bilitis）的标题，据说这首诗是由传说中希腊教师兼诗人萨福的一位虚构女情人所作，她们可以向那些“知情”的女性表明自己是一个同性恋团体，同时又能避免引起整个社会不必要的关注。
她们还迅速将自己确立为一个非营利组织，制定了章程、信笺抬头和会员卡。这些体现组织公信力的外在标志，不仅让她们自己，也让他人将她们视为一个合法团体。1957年1月，她们在旧金山使命街693号开设了第一个办公室，与男同性恋组织马特辛协会Mattachine Society2共用办公空间。少数决心寻找某种社群的女性在湾区找到了女儿会组织，或在百老汇下段找到了纽约办公室。凯·托宾（Kay Lahusen）3回忆道：“我当时紧张极了！” “我是说，当时我要去参加这个女同性恋团体的活动——而且她们还有一个办公室。我非常胆怯……直到我到了那里”（2）。她看到的是一个杂乱、逼仄的空间，有半打左右的女性聚在那里，不过这场景已经足以说服她加入。在接下来的二十年里，这个小小的“女儿会”就像一个组织严密的女性俱乐部，有时又感觉像一个功能失调的家庭。从1958年到1970年，它是一个全国性组织，有地方分会，平均两年组织一次会议，会员平均每年有200名女性。除了旧金山，纽约、洛杉矶、芝加哥和波士顿也有活跃的“女儿会”团体。美国的其他城市——如达拉斯、底特律和新奥尔良——以及澳大利亚的墨尔本，在20世纪60年代末和70年代初也存在了几年分会。
“女儿会”成员有哪些女同性恋者呢？尽管该组织绝大多数成员是白人，但不是全部。在最初的组织者中有两名有色人种女性——一名菲律宾裔和一名墨西哥裔美国女性。还有有几位非裔美国女性在该组织的全国和分会层面担任领导职务，比如旧金山的克莱奥·格伦（邦纳）Cleo Glenn (Bonner)和帕特·沃克Pat Walker，以及纽约的欧内斯廷·埃克斯坦Ernestine Eckstein。邦纳成为该组织的全国领袖，并在20世纪60年代中期领导该组织三年，她是首位领导全国性同性恋权利组织的有色人种女性。古巴裔的阿达·贝洛Ada Bello在20世纪60年代末是女儿会费城分会的领导人，而有爱尔兰和墨西哥血统的珍妮·科尔多瓦Jeanne Córdova在20世纪70年代初帮助振兴了洛杉矶分会。像南希·吉Nancie Gee和爱丽丝·小林Alice Kobayashi这样的艺术家为女儿会的杂志《阶梯》做出了贡献。“与20世纪50年代的许多其他团体不同，”早期成员比利·塔尔马奇回忆道，“女儿会没有肤色限制。”她接着指出，“成员中不仅有非裔美国人，还有亚裔、拉丁裔……推动力量在于我们都是同性恋女性”（3）。
根据早期由女同性恋活动家自己而非专业研究人员开展的女儿会组织成员调查，该组织中的大多数女性是教师。她们中有些人在企业担任专业职位或从事文职工作，另一些人在工厂工作或处于失业状态。20世纪50年代末加入女儿会组织的大多数女性都上过大学；只有少数人曾在二战期间或战后服过兵役。大多数人至少与异性有过一些性或情感方面的纠葛。也有相当一部分人有过地域流动，女儿会成员常常为了工作或新的恋爱对象而搬到国内其他地方。有时，这种结果对“女儿们”个人和政治上都有好处——1957年，“桑迪”（海伦·桑多兹）Helen Sandoz遇到并爱上了“斯特恩式轻机关枪”（斯特拉·拉什）Stella Rush4，她搬到洛杉矶以便两人能在一起。次年，她们创立了洛杉矶分会。
塑造女同性恋身份与可见性
《阶梯》杂志The Ladder可能是“女儿会”最广为人知的事物之一。这本25至60页的黑白杂志与许多学术或文学期刊尺寸相同，是美国第一本由女同性恋者为女同性恋者创办的持续发行的月刊。从1956年到1972年，它在工作场所、家庭和酒吧的同事之间传阅；不幸的是，对于该组织微薄的资金库来说，大多数读者都是“借阅”而非购买杂志。如今已年近六旬、七旬的女同性恋者们反复描述着，当她们在朋友家或全国各地售卖该杂志的十几个报摊和“另类”书店中发现一本时，那种惊讶的反应。“有一天，奥德丽（洛德）Audre Lorde和我在格林威治村第八街我们最喜欢的报摊前停下，看到了这本小杂志。是给女同性恋者的！” 里面有一篇艾里斯·默多克Iris Murdoch5写的文章。我们兴奋极了，”布兰奇·维森·库克回忆道（4）。对于历史学家库克（埃莉诺·罗斯福开创性传记的作者）和作家洛德（1991年被任命为纽约桂冠诗人的首位黑人女同性恋者）来说，《阶梯》杂志因收录了备受赞誉的英国小说家的文章而更具吸引力。艾里斯·默多克在20世纪50年代和60年代以其对道德和伦理问题进行的严谨、富有启发性的写作而闻名。
《阶梯》杂志封面和内容的变化，体现了女同性恋运动的演变。该杂志最初以女性的钢笔画为特色，但在1964年，在芭芭拉·吉廷斯（Barbara Gittings）担任编辑期间，《阶梯》开始展示凯·拉胡森拍摄的女同性恋照片。吉廷斯还在杂志封面用粗体字添加了“女同性恋评论”字样。其内容始终以女同性恋为中心，但又不拘一格。除了提供不断发展的同性恋解放运动的信息外，《阶梯》还向欣赏的读者群体推介女诗人和作家，从玛丽昂·齐默·布拉德利（Marion Zimmer Bradley）和珍妮特·霍华德·福斯特（Jeanette Howard Foster）再到瓦莱丽·泰勒（Valerie Taylor）和丽塔·梅·布朗（Rita Mae Brown）。1957年，《阶梯》推出的创新之一是由长期撰稿人兼最后一任编辑吉恩·达蒙（Gene Damon6，即芭芭拉·格里尔撰写的每月对所有女同性恋主题出版物的评论“女同性恋文献”（“Lesbiana”）。另一个创新是读者来信专栏，在接下来的14年里，该专栏刊登来自全球各地的信件。在该杂志早期的内容中，有两篇篇幅较长、富有思想性的文章，署名“L. H. N.，纽约，纽约”，在杂志创刊几个月内就寄给了编辑。这两封信对新团体的事业表示祝贺，并全文刊登； 几年之内，其作者、剧作家洛林·汉斯贝里（她在签名中加上了夫姓内米罗夫）凭借她那部关于美国种族关系的犀利戏剧《阳光下的葡萄干》（A Raisin in the Sun）（1959 年）引起了轰动。
女儿会的领导人还利用其出版物招募研究参与者。女儿会的长期研究主任弗洛伦斯·康拉德（贾菲）Florence Conrad (Jaffy)坚信，改变公众对女同性恋者看法的最佳方式是改变既定医学和科学文献中对她们的描述。贾菲认为，女儿会可以帮助研究人员找到健康、有正常功能、未被收容的女同性恋研究对象。然而，到20世纪60年代中期，女儿会的一些领导人，如吉廷斯，拒绝了该组织在界定男女同性恋者心理健康问题上依赖其成员以外任何人的建议。“对研究的强调已经过时了，”她在《阶梯》杂志的头条文章中写道，“现在是采取行动的时候了（5）。”
在十年时间里，战略分歧以及地域差异影响了“女儿会”（Daughters）的组织决策。1965年，在东海岸，吉廷斯、拉胡森和埃克斯坦是少数参与早期同性恋公开抗议活动的女同性恋者。在接下来的十年里，她们在华盛顿、纽约和费城的联邦大楼前进行抗议，挑战政府政策以及媒体所热衷的对同性恋者的模糊刻板印象。在旧金山，马丁（Martin）和莱昂（Lyon），以及塔尔马奇（Talmadge）、邦纳和沃克认识到消除同性恋“罪恶”观念的重要性，并将工作重点放在宗教领袖身上。1965年，他们与泰德·麦尔文纳（Ted McIlvenna）合作，麦尔文纳是一位富有同情心的牧师，他在该市贫困的田德隆区（Tenderloin）帮助离家出走的青少年，他们共同创立了宗教与同性恋委员会（Council on Religion and the Homosexual）。他们在主流教会中结交的盟友为推动同性恋权利立法提供了支持。在芝加哥，像芭芭拉·麦克莱恩（Barbara McLain）这样的“女儿会”领导人与马特辛社的活动家合作，呼吁人们关注困扰他们社区的骚扰和暴力问题。这一步骤促成了美国最早的警察暴力监督网络之一的成立，该网络至今仍在运作。
女权主义与阶梯的崩塌
从该组织创立之初，“个人”与“政治”在女儿会的项目和目标中的相互作用就显而易见。那些主要为结识新女友而来参加聚会的女性，往往收获超出预期。例如，“Gab ‘n’ Java”聚会提供了一个场所，让女性可以谈论她们以前从未敢公开表达的问题。随着一个又一个女性的故事在小团体的安全氛围中被分享和认可，女儿会成员意识到，不仅她们自己的自尊感需要改变，社会的态度和政策也需要改变。她们的杂志也帮助女儿会成员明确了对女同性恋者和男同性恋者之间性别差异的认识，并强调她们与异性恋女性在争取性别平等方面的团结。《阶梯》是20世纪50年代末和60年代初为数不多的全国性出版物之一，在其中可以找到批判女性在社会中处于第二性地位的文章，并且它定期刊登带有明显女权主义倾向的诗歌、短篇小说以及对小说和非小说作品的评论。
然而，20世纪60年代末，妇女解放运动对女儿会中某些杰出活动家的吸引力，以及她们希望利用《阶梯》等受尊重的资源来推动女权主义的愿望，导致女儿会领导层内部出现分裂，到1970年时，这种分裂已无法挽回。那年夏天，在女儿会两年一度的大会召开前一个月，全国主席丽塔·拉波尔特（Rita Laporte）将该杂志的邮寄名单和制作材料从旧金山带到她在内华达州的新家，以便她和编辑芭芭拉·格里尔能够私下出版《阶梯》。
女儿会的长期领导人们如莱昂、马丁、吉廷斯和拉胡森，对这一行动感到愤怒。《阶梯》的流失引发了一场信仰和友谊的危机，至今仍未解决。格里尔如今将此描述为从一个软弱无力的组织的垂死挣扎中拯救一份珍贵出版物的努力，但其他前女儿会成员坚称这无异于盗窃。他们断言，格里尔和拉波尔特通过“窃取”女儿会最珍贵的出版物——该组织最有价值的资产，导致了女儿会的覆灭。格里尔则认为，到1970年，《阶梯》越来越像一个独立的实体。作为编辑，她希望有自由去拓展其女权主义导向，并在其作为美国唯一有重要发行网络和出版历史的同性恋杂志的基础上继续发展。
不幸的是，如果没有赋予《阶梯》生命的组织，它就无法存续。在接下来的两年里，格里招募了崭露头角以及知名的女权主义作家，并将该杂志的发行量扩大到近4000份。然而，读者数量的增加却引发了财务问题。“简单来说，我们无法在不接受读者不想要的广告的情况下，继续印刷和邮寄高质量的杂志，”她在2003年解释自己为何在1972年停办《阶梯》时说道（6）。随后，格里与她的伴侣唐娜·麦克布赖德以及另外两名女性共同创立了奈亚德出版社（Naiad Press），这是一家成功的女性出版公司。她利用《阶梯》的邮寄名单来宣布新企业的成立。
在整个20世纪70年代，比利蒂斯女儿会至少在地方层面上继续为女同性恋者提供一个归宿。1970年，各分会获得了自主权和以“比利蒂斯女儿会”名义继续开展组织活动的权利，许多分会在整个70年代都继续开展工作。波士顿分会一直活跃到1995年。就像1955年一样，比利蒂斯女儿会对许多女性来说意义非凡。这里是女同性恋者可以结识新女友、开始治愈破碎的心或为自己的生活找到认可的地方。它是一个分享欢乐与悲伤的朋友圈，是一个提供支持和指导的同伴咨询网络，是一个解答有关同性恋问题的资源中心。它也是一个社会行动的舞台。比利蒂斯女儿会将个人支持与政治辩论相结合，吸引了那些从未将自己定义为变革推动者的女性投身于行动主义。
尽管冷战时期盛行着以循规蹈矩为特征的主流文化，但“女儿会”对女同性恋者进行教育和组织，倡导将她们纳入美国社会。她们借鉴战后关于融合和平等的言论，不仅挑战社会的恐同现象，也挑战其性别歧视。
译注：
1.Bilitis：希腊语 ：Βιλιτις，法国人Pierre Louÿs伪造的萨福同时代古希腊妇女，并以这个名字伪造《The Songs of Bilitis》且称之为Bilitis作品。
2. Mattachine Society：成立于 1950 年，是美国早期的全国性同性恋权利组织，之前有几个秘密和公开的组织，例如芝加哥的人权协会。共产党人和劳工活动家哈里·海伊 （Harry Hay） 与洛杉矶的一群男性朋友组成了该组织，以保护和改善男同性恋者的权利。在其他城市成立了分会，到 1961 年，该协会已分裂成区域团体。
3. Katherine Lahusen：也被称为Kay Tobin，美国摄影师、作家和同性恋权利活动家。她是第一位公开的美国女同性恋摄影记者。在拉胡森的艺术指导下， 女同性恋照片首次出现在 《天梯》 的封面上。这是她与伴侣Barbara Gittings合作的众多项目之一。
4. Stella Rush：笔名Sten Russell，美国记者和 LGBT 权利活动家。她是同性恋权利杂志 ONE（1954-1961 年）和女同性恋权利杂志 The Ladder（1957-1968 年）的定期记者。
5. Iris Murdoch：爱尔兰和英国的小说家和哲学家，她 1978 年的小说《 海，海》 获得了布克奖 。1987 年，她因对文学的贡献而被英国女王伊丽莎白二世封为女爵士 。2008 年，《泰晤士报》 将默多克列为“1945 年以来最伟大的英国 50 位作家”名单第十二位。
6. Gene Damon：美国作家和出版商。在编辑了女同性恋民权组织 Daughters of Bilitis 出版的 《The Ladder》杂志后，她与他人共同创立了一家女同性恋图书出版公司 Naiad Press，该公司经过宣传后成为世界上最大的女同性恋书籍出版商。她建立了重要的女同性恋文学集，并编目并附有主题的详细索引。
“We were fi ghting the church, the couch, and the courts.”
These are the words of activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. They are describing a time, fifty years ago, when a handful of lesbians challenged the widespread demonization of female same sex love by American religious leaders, psychiatrists, psychologists, lawyers, and lawmakers. The two women still insist that they did not intend to start a revolution. In September 1955, when Martin and Lyon accepted an invitation to meet with three other lesbian couples in San Francisco, the main topic of conversation was forming a social club for “gay girls.” Out of their discussions grew the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first national lesbian rights organization in the United States.
The story of DOB provides a unique example of women’s activism during a time in contemporary U.S. history often portrayed by historians as socially and politically quiescent. DOB’s particular style of mobilizing lesbians—what historian Marc Stein has termed “militantly respectable” organizing— provides examples of strategies that have been effective in repressive political climates.
To fully understand DOB, we must place it in its cold war context. As historian Ruth Rosen has written, “the fifties were an age of cognitive dissonance: millions of people believed in ideals that poorly described their own experience. The decade quarantined dissent and oozed conformity” (1). Although Alfred Kinsey’s postwar studies of human sexuality showed the prevalence of homosexual attraction for “normal” American women and men, gay men and lesbians were dismissed from federal employment, fi red from private industry, and deprived of custody of their children, just because they desired the “wrong” sex. They were regularly harassed, and often arrested, by local vice squads at gay-friendly bars and restaurants, then humiliated when their names and addresses were printed on the front pages of hometown newspapers. “Homosexual” was synonymous with “pervert” and “subversive.”
Initially, the Daughters performed a careful balancing act between visibility and secrecy. One of their first programs was a series of living- room discussions on issues of interest to lesbians. They called the informal coffee- fueled gatherings “Gab ‘n’ Javas.” A woman did not have to identify herself as gay to attend; membership was open to all females interested in learning more about the “problems” of homosexuality. Even the name the Daughters chose for the group provided shelter from unwitting exposure. By using the title of an obscure nineteenth century erotic poem (Songs of Bilitis), supposedly written by a mythical female lover of the legendary Greek teacher and poet Sappho, they could signal that they were a gay group to those women who were “in the know” yet shield themselves from unwanted attention from society at large.
They also quickly established themselves as a non-profit organization, with by-laws, letterhead, and membership cards. The external symbols of corporate credibility helped them see themselves, as well as be seen by others, as a legitimate group. They opened their first office at 693 Mission Street in San Francisco in January 1957, sharing space with the Mattachine Society, an organization of gay men. The few women who were determined to find some sort of community sought out DOB in the Bay area, or found the New York office on lower Broadway. Kay Tobin (Lahusen) remembers, “I was so nervous! I mean, here I was, going to this lesbian group—and they had an office. I was so intimidated . . . until I got there” (2). What she found was a cluttered, claustrophobic space in which half a dozen women had gathered, but it was enough to convince her to join. For the next two decades, the tiny group of Daughters functioned like a highly structured women’s club and sometimes felt like a dysfunctional family. From 1958 to 1970, it was a national organization with local chapters, biennial conferences, and a membership averaging 200 women annually. In addition to San Francisco, there were active DOB groups in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. Other U.S. cities—such as Dallas, Detroit, and New Orleans—as well as Melbourne, Australia, also had chapters for a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Which lesbians were Daughters? While the organization’s membership was overwhelmingly white, it was not exclusively so. There were two women of color—a Filipina and a Chicana— among the initial organizers. A few African American women assumed positions of leadership within the organization at both national and chapter levels, such as Cleo Glenn (Bonner) and Pat Walker in San Francisco, and Ernestine Eckstein in New York. Bonner became the president of the national organization and led it for three years in the mid-1960s, the first woman of color to head a national gay rights group. Cuban-born Ada Bello was a leader in DOB’s Philadelphia Chapter in the late 1960s and Jeanne Córdova, of Irish and Mexican descent, helped revitalize the Los Angeles Chapter in the early 1970s. Artists like Nancie Gee and Alice Kobayashi contributed to DOB’s magazine, The Ladder. “Unlike many other groups in the 1950s,” remembers early member Billye Talmadge, “there were no color bars in DOB.” She goes on to note that “there were not just African-Americans, but Asians, Latinas . . . the driving force was that we were gay women” (3).
According to an early DOB membership survey, the first administered by lesbian activists themselves rather than professional researchers, a majority of the women in the organization were teachers. Some of them held professional positions in business or were employed as clerical workers, others had factory jobs or were unemployed. Most of the women who joined DOB in the late 1950s had gone to college; only a handful had served in the military in World War II or afterward. Most had at least some sexual or emotional involvement with the opposite sex. There was a fair amount of geographic mobility as well, and DOB members often moved to a different part of the country for work or a new love interest. Sometimes the result would be good for the Daughters personally and politically—when “Sandy” (Helen Sandoz) met and fell in love with “Sten” (Stella Rush) in 1957, she moved to Los Angeles so they could be together. The next year, they founded the Los Angeles Chapter.
Creating Lesbian Identity and Visibility
The Ladder may be one of the things that the Daughters is best known for. The same compact size as many academic or literary journals, the 25- to 60-page black-and-white magazine was the first ongoing monthly publication in the United States created by lesbians for lesbians. From 1956 to 1972, it was handed around among colleagues at work, at home, and at the bars; unfortunately for the organization’s meager treasury, most readers “borrowed” rather than paid for their copies. Repeatedly, lesbians who are now in their late 50s, 60s, and 70s describe their amazed reaction to finding a copy at a friend’s home or at one of the dozen newsstands and “alternative” bookstores around the country that sold it. “One day Audre (Lorde) and I stopped at our favorite newsstand on 8th Street in the Village and saw this little magazine. For lesbians! And there was an article in it by Iris Murdoch. We were thrilled,” remembers Blanche Wiesen Cook (4). For historian Cook, the groundbreaking biographer of Eleanor Roosevelt, and writer Lorde, the first black lesbian to be named New York’s Poet Laureate (1991), the discovery of The Ladder was further enhanced by its inclusion of the acclaimed British novelist. Iris Murdoch was renowned for her intellectually rigorous, provocative writings on moral and ethical issues in the 1950s and 1960s.
The changing cover and content of The Ladder illustrate the lesbian movement’s evolution. The magazine initially featured pen-and-ink drawings of women but in 1964, under the editorship of Barbara Gittings, The Ladder began showcasing photos of lesbians taken by Kay Lahusen. Gittings also added the words “A Lesbian Review” in boldface type to the front of the magazine. The content was always lesbian-centered yet eclectic. In addition to providing information on the growing homophile movement, The Ladder promoted female poets and writers—from Marion Zimmer Bradley and Jeanette Howard Foster to Valerie Taylor and Rita Mae Brown—to an appreciative audience. A monthly review of any and all lesbian-themed publications, “Lesbiana,” written by longtime Ladder contributor and final editor Gene Damon (Barbara Grier) was one of the innovations The Ladder introduced in 1957. Another was the letters to the editor column, which featured correspondence from around the globe for the next fourteen years. Among the early riches to be found in its pages are two long, thoughtful pieces, signed “L. H. N., New York, New York,” which were sent to the editor within a few months of the magazine’s debut. Offering congratulations for the new group’s undertakings, the letters were printed in their entirety; within a few years, their author, playwright Lorraine Hansberry (who added her married name, Nemiroff, to her signature), would cause a sensation with her searing drama on American race relations, A Raisin in the Sun (1959).
DOB leaders also used their publication to recruit research participants. Florence Conrad (Jaffy), DOB’s longtime Research Director, believed passionately that the best way to change public perceptions of lesbians was by changing what was written about them in the established medical and scientifi c literature. DOB, Jaffy argued, could help researchers find healthy, functioning, noninstitutionalized lesbian subjects for study. By the mid-1960s, however, some DOB leaders such as Gittings rejected the suggestion that the organization rely on anyone but its members in defining the mental health of gay women and men. “Emphasis on research has had its day,” she headlined in The Ladder. It was time to take action (5).
Within ten years’ time, strategic disagreements as well as geographic differences influenced the Daughters’ organizing decisions. In 1965, on the East Coast, Gittings, Lahusen, and Eckstein were three of a handful of lesbians who joined early gay public protests. They picketed federal buildings in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia for the rest of the decade, challenging government policies as well as the shadowy stereotypes of gay people so popular with the media. In San Francisco, Martin and Lyon, along with Talmadge, Bonner, and Walker, recognized the importance of exorcizing the “sin” of homosexuality and focused on religious leaders. Working with Ted McIlvenna, a sympathetic minister who aided runaway youth in the city’s poor Tenderloin district, they helped create the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in 1965. The allies they made within mainstream churches helped develop support for gay rights legislation. In Chicago, DOB leaders like Barbara McLain worked with Mattachine activists to call attention to the harassment and violence that plagued their communities. This step led to the founding of one of the first police brutality monitoring networks in the country, which continues to operate today.
Feminism and the Fall of The Ladder
The interplay between “the personal” and “the political” in DOB’s programs and goals is evident from the organization’s beginnings. Women who came to the get-togethers mainly to meet a new girlfriend often got more than they bargained for. For example, the “Gab ‘n’ Java” gatherings provided sites where women could talk about issues they had never before dared to express openly. As one woman’s story after another was shared and validated within the safety of the small group, DOB members realized that it was not just their own sense of self-esteem but society’s attitudes and policies that needed to change. Their magazine also helped DOB members defi ne their awareness of gender differences between lesbians and gay men, and stress their solidarity with heterosexual women on the need for gender equality. The Ladder was one of the few national publications where essays critiquing women’s second-class status in society could be found in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it regularly printed poetry, short stories, and reviews of fiction and nonfiction with a decidedly feminist slant.
However, the appeal of women’s liberation to some of DOB’s most prominent activists in the late 1960s, and their desire to utilize respected resources like The Ladder to promote feminism, caused a split within DOB’s leadership that by 1970 was irreparable. That summer, one month before DOB’s biennial convention, national president Rita Laporte took the magazine’s mailing list and production materials from San Francisco to her new home in Nevada so that she and editor Barbara Grier could publish The Ladder privately.
DOB’s longtime leaders, including Lyon, Martin, Gittings, and Lahusen, were infuriated by this action. The loss of The Ladder caused a crisis of faith and friendship that has yet to be resolved. What Grier describes today as an effort to save a valuable publication from the death throes of a weak and ineffectual organization, other former Daughters insist was nothing less than theft. They assert that Grier and Laporte caused DOB’s demise by “stealing” their prized publication, which was the organization’s most valuable asset. Grier argues that The Ladder by 1970 was increasingly functioning as its own entity. As editor, she wanted the freedom to expand its feminist orientation and build on its legacy as the only established American lesbian magazine with a significant distribution network and publishing history.
Unfortunately, The Ladder could not survive without the organization that had given it life. Over the next two years, Grier recruited up-and-coming as well as well-known feminist writers and expanded the magazine’s circulation to nearly 4,000. The increase in readership, however, caused financial problems. “The simple truth is that we couldn’t afford to keep printing and mailing a high-quality magazine without accepting ads our readers wouldn’t want,” she said in 2003 to explain why she stopped publishing The Ladder in 1972 (6). With her partner Donna McBride and two other women, Grier then founded Naiad Press, a successful women’s publishing company. She used The Ladder’s mailing list to announce the new enterprise.
Through the 1970s DOB continued to provide a home for lesbians, at least on the local level. Chapters were granted autonomy and the right to continue organizing under the “Daughters of Bilitis” name in 1970 and many continued their work for the rest of the decade. The Boston Chapter was active until 1995. Then, as in 1955, DOB was many things to many women. It was where a lesbian could go to meet a new girlfriend, begin to heal a broken heart, or find validation for her life. It was a circle of friends to share good times and bad, a network of peer counselors who offered support and guidance, a resource center for questions about homosexuality. It was an arena for social action. The Daughters’ mix of personal support and political debate brought women to activism who never would have defined themselves as agents for change.
Despite the dominant culture of conformity so characteristic of the cold war years, the Daughters educated and organized lesbians, advocating for their inclusion in U.S. society. They adapted the postwar rhetoric of integration and equality to challenge their society not only on its homophobia but on its sexism.
Endnotes
1. Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How The Modern Women’s Movement
Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), 8.
2. Kay Lahusen, interview with author, April 23, 2002.
3. Billye Talmadge, interview with author, March 30, 2002.
4. Blanche Wiesen Cook, discussion with author, September 5, 2004.
5. The Ladder 10 (October 1965): 10.
6. Barbara Grier, interview with author, December 29, 2003.
Resources
Primary Sources
Bullough, Vern L., ed. Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2002.
Córdova, Jeanne. Kicking the Habit: A Lesbian Nun Story; An Autobiographical Novel. Hollywood, CA: Multiple Dimensions, 1990.
Marcus, Eric. Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights. New York: Perennial, 2002.
Martin, Del and Phyllis Lyon. Lesbian/Woman. 20th anniversary ed. Volcano, CA: Volcano Press, 1991, 1972.
Tobin, Kay and Randy Wicker. The Gay Crusaders. New York: Paperback Library, 1972.
Secondary Sources
Boyd, Nan Alamilla. Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Capsuto, Steven. Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television, 1930s to the Present. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.
Cook, Blanche Wiesen. “Female Support Networks and Political Activism: Lillian Wald, Crystal Eastman, Emma Goldman.” Chrysalis 3 (Autumn 1977): 43-61.
D’Emilio, John. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Duberman, Martin. Stonewall. New York: Dutton, 1993.
Faderman, Lillian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Freedman, Estelle B. “Boston Marriage, Free Love, and Fictive Kin: Historical Alternatives to Mainstream Marriage.” OAH Newsletter 32 (August 2004): 1.———. No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women.
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Katz, Jonathan Ned. Gay American History: Lesbians & Gay Men in the U.S.A.: A Documentary History. Rev. ed. New York: Meridian, 1992, 1976.
Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky and Madeline D. Davis. Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community. Reprint. New York: Penguin Books, 1994, 1993.
May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Meeker, Martin. “Behind the Mask of Respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and Male Homophile Practice, 1950s and 1960s.”
Journal of the History of Sexuality 10 (January 2001): 78-116.
Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America. New York: Viking, 2000.
Rupp, Leila J. A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America.
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Soares, Manuela, “The Purloined Ladder: Its Place in Lesbian History.”
Journal of Homosexuality 34 (Winter 1998): 27-49.
Stein, Marc. City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-1972. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Videos
Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community. VHS. Directed by Greta Schiller and produced by Robert Rosenberg and John Scagliotti. New York: Cinema Guild, 1985.
Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. VHS. Directed by Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie. Montréal: National Film Board of Canada, 1992.
Last Call at Maud’s. VHS. Directed by Paris Poirier and produced by The Maud’s Project. New York: Water Bearer Films, 1993.
No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. DVD. Directed and produced by Joan E. Biren (JEB) and produced by Dee Mosbacher. San Francisco: Frameline, 2003.
Word Is Out. VHS. Directed by Andrew Brown and produced by Peter Adair and Nancy Adair. New York: New Yorker Video, 1991, 1978.
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