Historically, lesbianism has not been legally persecuted to the extent that male homosexuality has, if only because ‘sexual deviancy’ in women was simply unthinkable to the largely male-headed establishment. Nevertheless, sapphic relationships were still very much frowned upon, and there were also far fewer social spaces for lesbians (or any wlw) than there were for gay men.

On 21st September 1955, Rosalie ‘Rose’ Bamberger and her partner Rosemary Sliepen (both working class, and Rose was Filipina) hosted a gathering at their house. The guests were three other lesbian couples, including Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who had been together for three years and were keen to get to know other lesbians. 

Rose and Rosemary proposed forming a private social club which served as an alternative to lesbian bars, which were frequently subject to harassment and police raids. Above all, the women wanted a space to dance away from judgement, though from the start they were also focused on educating a wider audience about lesbianism and reducing their own internalised shame.

So began the Daughters of Bilitis. The name comes from Bilitis, French poet Pierre Louÿs’ fictional contemporary of Sappho, with Daughters aiming to evoke association with, for example, the Daughters of the American Revolution. They chose an intentionally obscure name; very few would know enough to connect Bilitis with lesbianism, and if they were to be asked, Lyon wrote: ‘we could always say we belong to a poetry club’.

They slowly began to expand, with fifteen members by 1956, though only three of the founders (including Martin and Lyon) still belonged to that number. Martin had been elected president and Lyon was the secretary, and both poured their energies into the group, even using their personal funds as a means of keeping it afloat.

As they grew, Martin and Lyon took steps to make the DOB more official. On a material level, they designed a pin for members to wear, chose club colours, and voted on a motto (‘Qui vive’ – on alert). Further, in 1957, they filed for non-profit status, with a description so vague that ‘it could have been a charter for a cat-raising club’, as Lyon recalled.

The DOB eventually wanted to become more than just a social space. They began hosting public forums on homosexuality, with a specific focus on lesbian rights. This was radical for the 1950s, as there was a distinct lack of any information on female homosexuality.

Recognising that they wouldn’t be able to go entirely public with the group, Martin and Lyon, who both had backgrounds in journalism, decided to begin publishing a monthly magazine, which they would distribute as far as possible. It became known as The Ladder, which was launched in October 1956, and of which Lyon was the editor.

The Ladder was the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the US, and it was the first to public statistics on lesbians, after surveys were sent to readers. The group relied heavily on donations to keep the magazine going, and lesbian staff at Macy’s sign shop came to the rescue when their original mimeograph machine broke down. Workers would print The Ladder before or after regular hours, having to endure near misses with the boss.

It seemed, however, that Martin and Lyon wanted to avoid too much scandal and radicalism. They tended to push a conservative focus and the DOB primarily reached out to white, middle-class women. They discouraged any activities that would make lesbians visibly different (i.e., cross-dressing), and The Ladder kept away from political topics, preferring poetry, personal essays, and fiction, for example.

Members were encouraged to assimilate into heterosexual culture as far as possible – the DOB advertised themselves as ‘A Woman’s Organization for the purpose of Promoting the Integration of the Homosexual into Society’. This undoubtedly contributed to the cracks that began to form.

Numbers were also an issue for the DOB – despite new chapters opening in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Rhode Island, as well as a group in Australia, they never gained the same momentum as gay male organisations did. Membership would sporadically increase, then drop again, while finances constantly dwindled.

Circulation for The Ladder peaked in the early 1960s at around 500 copies, at which time the DOB had a membership of roughly 100.

“If we ever hope to win our battle, we must fight. First, unshackle ourselves from fear, for it alone is our omnipresent enemy,”

‘The Ladder’, April 1961, Vol. 5, Issue 7, pg. 21

In 1960, they held a convention in San Francisco, which was attended by 200 women, as well as police, who checked to see if any DOB members were wearing trousers. None were. Attendees listened to various speakers, including a priest who went on a ‘tirade’, insisting that the women were sinners. The DOB also gave awards out to male allies (for example members of the Mattachine Society), referring to them as Sons of Bilitis. The convention was held every two years until 1968, the second of which was covered on television in what was probably the first American broadcast to cover lesbianism.

However, in the mid-1960s, the DOB’s direction began to shift. Martin and Lyon began to lose control, and leadership was eventually handed over to Rita Laporte and Barbara Grier, the latter of whom also became editor of The Ladder.

Under their leadership, the movement became more militant, shifting from lesbian rights to women’s rights. Members began to feel that they had more in common with heterosexual women than with gay men, and they felt their needs and concerns were not being met by the homophile movement. Younger lesbians, more attracted to radicalism, began joining feminist organisations, and DOB membership dwindled, with less than two dozen attending the final convention in 1968.

The nail in the coffin for the DOB was a coup staged by Laporte and Grier, in which they seized The Ladder’s subscription list to begin publishing independently as a women’s liberation magazine.

Shortly after, the Daughters of Bilitis folded, though some chapters managed to keep going until 1995. The Ladder ran until 1972, lacking sufficient financial support to continue.

Despite its troubles, however, there is no doubt that the DOB was a highly influential movement for its 14 years of life. They were an educational resource, promoting acceptance of lesbianism, and were able to push for understanding in a time when who they were was deemed unacceptable.

Sources:

• The Daughters of Bilitis – LGBTQ+ Studies: A Resource Guide – Research Guides at Library of Congress (loc.gov)
• Daughters of Bilitis | American organization | Britannica
• Daughters of Bilitis (glbtqarchive.com)
• Martin, Del and Phyllis Lyon, ‘Daughters of Bilitis and the Ladder that Teetered’, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 5.3 (2001), 113-118