Daughters of Bilitis
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The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), considered to be the first lesbian rights organization, was formed in San Francisco, California in 1955. The group was conceived as a social alternative to lesbian bars, which were considered illegal and thus subject to raids and police harassment. Founders claim that they had no knowledge of the male-oriented homophile groups, such as the Mattachine Society, when they first established the organization in 1955.
DOB was influential throughout the 1950s and 1960s but was torn apart by factionalism in the 1970s. Its members split over whether to give more support to the gay rights movement or to feminism. One chapter of DOB survives to this day in Cambridge, Massachusetts (unconfirmed, but was still in existence in 1992).
"Daughters" was meant to evoke association with other American sororal associations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. "Bilitis" is the name given to a fictional lesbian contemporary of Sappho, by the French poet Pierre Louÿs in his 1894 work The Songs of Bilitis.
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[edit] Chapters
At its peak, DOB had spawned chapters all over the USA and in Australia. American chapters included New York City, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Detroit, Chicago, Reno, Philadelphia, Cambridge and Boston.
[edit] Notable Members
Many prominent feminists and lesbians were members and officers in DOB chapters, including:
- Ti-Grace Atkinson, Member - DOB NY
- Barbara Gittings, Founder and First President - DOB NY
- Lorraine Hansberry, Writer for 'The Ladder', playwright
- Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, Founders - DOB SF
- Ellen Povill, Member - DOB NY
- Ruth Simpson, President - DOB NY, Founder of the first Lesbian community center, author of the book, From the Closet to the Courts
- Kay Tobin Lahusen, Member - DOB NY, Author 'The Gay Crusaders'
- Marion Zimmer Bradley, Member, author
[edit] Publications
The regular DOB publication was called The Ladder, started in 1956 with the help of ONE, Inc. and the Mattachine Society, with whom the DOB retained friendly relations. In 1970 the mailing-lists and production facilities for The Ladder were secretly seized and relocated by separatist feminists, and as a consequence the magazine ceased publication in 1972. The name of the journal refers to Plato's pedagogic hierarchy, "the ladder of beauty".
[edit] Relevant Reading
- Boyd, Nan Alamilla. Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965, University of California Press, 2003. [1]
- Bullough, Vern L. Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. Harrington Park Press, 2002.
- D'Emilio, John. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, University of Chicago Press, 1983. [2]
- Gallo, Marcia M. Different Daughters: A history of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Birth of the Lesbian Rights Movement, Carroll & Graf, 2006. [3]
- Martin, Del and Phyllis Lyon. Lesbian/Woman, 1972. ISBN 091207891X.
- Meeker, Martin. Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s-1970s. University of Chicago Press, 2006. [4].
- Simpson, Ruth. From the Closet to the Courts, New York: Penguin Books, 1977. ISBN 0140043535.
- Stein, Marc. City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-1972, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000; reprinted by Temple University Press, 2004 [5].
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[edit] See also
- Daughters of Bilitis (Australia)
- Ruth Simpson
- Minorities Research Group - A UK group of the same period.
