by Anthony Murisco, Public Engagement Librarian
This upcoming weekend marks New York City’s annual Pride Parade. The parade and the events surrounding it help make NYC’s celebration of pride the largest in North America, as well as one of the biggest in the world. It will also mark the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a defining moment in gay rights history. From June 28th until July 3rd, 1969, the community fought for their existence. These riots helped LGBTQIA+ individuals be seen and heard on a larger scale than ever before.
Stonewall has come to symbolize a turning point in gay rights. Before that pushback event, the struggle had seemed like an uphill battle. That was one reason that gay people came together for solidarity and advocacy.
The Daughters of Bilitis began in 1955 with a mission to bring lesbians together. Under the guise of a poetry club, named after a fictional contemporary of Sappho, they began with just a few members. What started in San Francisco quickly grew to other parts of the country. By 1958, a dedicated meeting space was even opened in New York City.
The Ladder was the Daughters’ monthly publication, begun in 1956. There you could find short stories, poetry, personal essays, book reviews, and anything else that dealt with women who loved women. One of their more bustling sections was the letters to the editors where women from all over the country could weigh in on issues. More on this later!
Issues usually began with the Daughters’ mission statement. Broken into four points that the group had decided were important, they sought to take back the narrative of their lives. They used personal stories and experiences with experts in the medical, psychological, and sociological fields to push back against social oppression. And they had enough of a reach to do so! It made sense that they were going to respond to a 1964 report by their New York City neighbors, the New York Academy of Medicine.
In May 1964, NYAM’s Committee on Public Health adopted a report on homosexuality, and published it in the July issue of the Academy’s Bulletin. The Committee had its own thoughts on the “problem.” The report labeled the homosexual as an “emotionally disturbed individual who has not acquired a normal capacity to develop satisfying heterosexual relationships” and stated that these problems may have begun in early childhood. Not only did these conclusions further demonize those who were already living on the fringe of society, but they made those involved in their upbringing culpable too.
[In 2022, NYAM President Judith A. Salerno, disavowed the report. As the organization looked back on its 175th anniversary, she felt it was only just to “be accountable for our actions—and also for our inactions throughout our history.” It is a tenet of a historical collection that we believe to move forward, we must look at the past.]
The Editorial column for the August 1964 issue brought the issue to the fore. With a footprint all over the country, they couldn’t be sure that all their readers had seen the report. Editor Barbara Gittings wanted them to know: it is out there.
Could this professional opinion change how you were looked at? “That tidy clinical story is not about humans,” Gittings reminded her readers, even as she assured them not to worry too much. The Academy’s report did not tell the stories that the real people who write and read the magazine could. Regular readers are told of the “moral manipulation” on the part of those who had never met a homosexual.
After addressing those she feels are the most important—the readers—she turns to the “Gentlemen” of the Committee on Public Health. Gittings’ editorial included her June 13th letter to NYAM and asked them to reconsider what they wrote. She called out the “misleading statements” about the Daughters of Bilitis and other gay organizations. Gittings even extended an invitation to attend their annual convention, on June 20th of that year. The Daughters wanted them to see what the organization was about. The invitation went unanswered.
The Daughters of Bilitis officially disbanded in 1970 amidst the larger social upheaval of gay rights and the larger second wave of feminism. The Ladder was published until it was discontinued in 1972.
While it was around, The Ladder provided one of the only outlets for gay women to be seen or to see themselves. They didn’t have to agree with everything that the magazine published. And if they didn’t see what they wanted to, they weren’t afraid to ask for it. This brings us back to the letters section, “Readers Respond.”
The September 1964 issue’s letters section was dominated by a long, anonymous letter from a New York publisher, tired of what she perceived as the overwhelming amount of “leering and lewd” lesbian literature. But her tone then changes dramatically, ending with an aspiration: “I hope you don’t mind my frankness or my anger, but I think it’s about time that lesbians came out of the shadows to prove their lives are not filled with cobwebs but that they are genuine human beings as worthy of love, respect, and the good life as anyone else!”
We needed Pride more than ever back then. This is why we still celebrate it now.
References
Daughters of Bilitis. The Ladder. Reno, Nev. [etc.], 1956–72.
“Daughters of Bilitis Center,” NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. https://www.nyclgbtsites.org/site/daughters-of-bilitis-center Accessed 28 June 2024.
Heiman, Logan + Theerman, Paul. “The Academy’s 1964 Report on Homosexuality.” Books, Health, and History, 9 June 2022. https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2022/06/09/the-academys-1964-report-on-homosexuality%ef%bf%bc/. Accessed 28 June 2024.
Salerno, Judith A. “Revisiting and Disavowing the New York Academy of Medicine’s 1964 Report on Homosexuality.” J Urban Health 99, 607–609 (2022). Revisiting and Disavowing the New York Academy of Medicine’s 1964 Report on Homosexuality – PMC (nih.gov) Accessed 28 June 2024.
Theophano, Theresa. “Daughters of Bilitis.” 2015. http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/daughters_bilitis_S.pdf. Accessed 28 June 2024.
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