A Shared Identity
Each of these early organizations published magazines or periodicals, which became a vital part of a growing movement. Although their distribution was small, these publications created a national sense of community and provided a forum for debate on issues. They exposed injustice, encouraged dialogue, promoted solidarity, and let gay individuals living in fear and isolation know that they were not alone. Courtesy: GLAMA
In an effort to address the discrimination they faced by authorities, gays and lesbians started organizing formally in the early 1950s. Called “homophile organizations” in order to emphasize their sense of community and deemphasize the sexual aspect of their identity that so concerned the public, these pioneering groups worked to provide awareness, education, and unification of this oppressed minority.
In 1951, the Mattachine Society was founded in Los Angeles. Several organizations followed, including ONE, Inc., which produced the first widely circulated gay publication in 1953, and the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian rights organization in the United States.
The early homophile organizations were overwhelmingly male. In part because gay women had fewer public spheres than gay men, a small group formed the Daughters of Bilitis in an apartment in San Francisco in 1955. The group’s publication, The Ladder, was the first devoted to the needs of lesbians.
Operating in an era of legal and social oppression, these early gay rights groups sought acceptance from the general community and turned to professionals to legitimize homosexuality rather than engage in direct political action.
Despite this focus on accommodation, the early movement was instrumental in creating a group identity, an identity that would later enable gay men and women to rally together and demand change on a broader scale.
“We are sworn that no boy or girl, approaching the maelstrom of deviation, need make that crossing alone, afraid and in the dark ever again.”
—Initiation pledge of the Mattachine Society