“The Ladder:” First National lesbian Magazine Releases First Issue
The Ladder, the first national lesbian magazine in the U.S. published its first issue on this day. The magazine was edited by Phyllis Lyon (initially under the pseudonym of “Ann Ferguson”), who with Del Martin had founded the Daughters of Bilitis on September 21, 1955.
In fact, The Ladder was not the first lesbian magazine. A newsletter Vice Versa (an anagram of “lesbian”) had been distributed privately in Los Angeles in 1947-1948, but it did not last. The Ladder was published regularly from May 1955 through September 1972. Also, The Ladder was not first published on October 10, 1955, but was issued some time that month and dated May 1955).
By October 1957 The Ladder had a mailing list with 400 subscribers.
In 1963 Barbara Gittings became the editor and gave the magazine a stronger political orientation. She also added “A Lesbian Review” to the title of the magazine. Gittings was associated with Frank Kameny of the Mattachine Society, the national gay men’s group, which was founded on November 11, 1950.
In 1970 the Daughters of Bilitis disbanded due to organizational problems and disagreements about where the group stood in relation to the rapidly emerging women’s rights movement. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon joined the National Organization for Women (NOW). In 1972 The Ladder ran out of funds and ceased publication.
On May 4, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared the long-time home of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin to be a historical landmark. They had purchased the house in 1955. The couple originally married in 2004, but the marriage was later invalidated by a ruling of the California Supreme Court. The were officially –and legally and permanently– married in May 2008 following a different ruling by the state supreme court.
Read: Marcia M. Gallo, Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement (2006)
Learn more about the history of the GLBT revolution: Lillian Faderman, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (2015)
Read: James T. Sears, Behind the Mask of the Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation (2006)
Read about the history of the GLBT revolution: Lillian Faderman, The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle (2015)
Learn more: Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (1999)