The Ladder (magazine)

Last updated

The Ladder
The Ladder, October 1957.jpg
The Ladder, October 1957
Editor
Categories News magazine
FrequencyMonthly, later bimonthly
Publisher Daughters of Bilitis
First issueOctober 1956;67 years ago (1956-10)
Final issueSeptember 1972;51 years ago (1972-09)
CountryUnited States
Based inLos Angeles
Language English
ISSN 0023-7108
OCLC 2263409

The Ladder was the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States. Published from 1956 to 1972 (bimonthly in 1971 and 1972), The Ladder was the primary monthly publication and method of communication for the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first lesbian organization in the US. It was supported by ONE, Inc. and the Mattachine Society, with whom the DOB retained friendly relations. The name of the magazine was derived from the artwork on its first cover, simple line drawings showing figures moving towards a ladder that disappeared into the clouds.

Contents

History

The first lesbian publication in the United States was a newsletter called Vice Versa, subtitled "America's Gayest Magazine". It was created and edited by a secretary named Edith Eyde (using the pseudonym Lisa Ben, an anagram of "lesbian") in Los Angeles, and distributed privately in that area from 1947 to 1948.

The first edition of The Ladder appeared in October 1956, edited by Phyllis Lyon, who co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in 1955 with Del Martin, both of whom had journalism experience. Many of its contributors used pseudonyms or initials. Lyon edited The Ladder as "Ann Ferguson" for the first few months, but dropped the name as a way of encouraging their readers not to hide. [1] The first issues of the magazine averaged 20 pages with each issue increasing in length from 12 pages to 30 pages by the end of the first volume. A volunteer staff produced each issue on a typewriter, copied by a mimeograph, and hand stapled. It included book reviews, news, poetry, short stories, a running bibliography of lesbian literature, letters from readers, and updates from DOB meetings. In 1959 it took a rare political stance against San Francisco mayoral candidate Russel Wolden who criticized incumbent mayor George Christopher's making the city a haven for "sex deviants." [2] [3] The Ladder was issued in a brown paper covering for the duration of its existence. There were 175 copies of the first issue, and members of the DOB mailed them to every woman they knew who might be interested, including woman professionals in the San Francisco telephone book, and others throughout the United States. [4] It soon became available in newsstands in major cities and by subscription, obtained by word of mouth. [5]

By October 1957, there were 400 subscribers on the mailing list. [6] An early respondent to the magazine was playwright Lorraine Hansberry, writing a letter of thanks in May 1957 signed "L.H.N", offering $2.00 US for any back issues, and stating she was "glad as heck that you exist." [7] Lyon published her entire letter, [8] taking up two of the 30 pages of that issue. Historian Marcia Gallo wrote of The Ladder, "For women who came across a copy in the early days, The Ladder was a lifeline. It was a means of expressing and sharing otherwise private thoughts and feelings, of connecting across miles and disparate daily lives, of breaking through isolation and fear." [9] While Gallo's assertion is supported by the publicized letters in the magazine, the letters left unpublished criticized the magazine on format, purpose, and content as ineffective. [10]

Changes

In 1963 Barbara Gittings took over editing The Ladder, giving it a more politically urgent stance and adding "A Lesbian Review" under the title of the magazine. The line drawings on the cover were replaced with photographs of lesbians, to make them more visible. The first woman who appeared in a photograph on the cover in May 1964 was an unnamed model. The first woman who allowed her name to be printed was from Indonesia who had sent her picture and a letter explaining how isolated she was. [7] Except for the first two covers, the rest of the portraits that appeared on the cover of The Ladder were shot by Gittings' partner, Kay Lahusen. The January 1966 cover with Lahusen's photo of Lilli Vincenz was the first to feature a named model without sunglasses or in profile view. [11] [12] By 1966, Gittings remembered, there was a list of women who were willing to lend their photo and their name to the cover. [13] The improvement of the production quality in the magazine was evident due in large part to a monthly donation of $100,000 the DOB received from a source they knew only as "Pennsylvania" that was spread out between 1963 and 1969. [7]

Gittings was allied with Frank Kameny of the Mattachine Society and used his writings often in The Ladder. With Kameny and other members of the Washington D.C. Mattachine Society, Gittings began picketing high-profile locations such as the White House and the State Department, and reported on the picketing sessions, encouraging others to do so in The Ladder. Differences in the direction of politics became an issue, and Gittings was ousted as the editor in 1966. One source claims it occurred after removing "For Adults Only" on the front cover neglecting to consult the Daughters of Bilitis, [2] although another source says Gittings was ousted for getting too many issues out late. [14]

One of the earliest members of the Daughters of Bilitis, Helen Sandoz, took over the editorship, returning to a more apolitical and lighthearted stance, sometimes writing her editorials as her cat. [15] [16] Barbara Grier took over as editor in 1968, having previously contributed to the magazine under a variety of pseudonyms that included Gene Damon, Lennox Strong, and Vern Niven. She made her most significant contribution as a book reviewer, and when she became the editor sought to make it more professional. It received a smoother layout with more material—the second issue under Grier was 48 pages. Although the headquarters for The Ladder was in San Francisco, Grier ran the magazine long distance from Kansas City. She tripled the subscription rate by removing "lesbian" from the cover to address more feminist issues.

Controversy at the end

In 1970, the DOB disbanded due to organizational problems, disagreements about aligning themselves with homophile organizations composed predominantly of gay men, and supporting the growing feminist movement. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon had joined the National Organization for Women and encouraged readers of The Ladder to do the same. Younger members who were sparked by more confrontational methods of protest, did not agree with some of the older members' ideas. Concerned that the magazine would be lost due to the lack of direction in the national organization, DOB president Rita LaPorte took possession of the 3,800-member mailing list for The Ladder (of which there were only two copies, the subject of which was an annual article to assure women that their names were safe) to Reno without the knowledge of Martin and Lyons, and she and Barbara Grier continued to publish it until September 1972 when they ran out of funds. When The Ladder severed its ties with the DOB, the anonymous donations to assist the magazine stopped. [7] A controversy arose between Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons, Barbara Gittings, and Helen Sandoz who maintained the mailing list was stolen, and Grier who stated taking the list was necessary to keep a dying organization alive. [7]

In 1975, Arno Press released a nine-volume compilation of The Ladder in hardback as part of their series "Lesbians and Gay Men in Society, History, and Literature" with a short foreword by Barbara Grier. Speaking to journalist and historian Rodger Streitmatter about The Ladder, Grier commented that "no woman ever made a dime for her work, and some ... worked themselves into a state of mental and physical decline on behalf of the magazine." [17] She felt that "most of (the editors) believed that they were moving the world with their labors, and I believe that they were right". [17]

Content

In 1956, the Daughters of Bilitis wrote their mission statement, which was printed on the inside of every cover of the magazine until 1970:

  1. Education of the variant...to enable her to understand herself and make her adjustment to society...this to be accomplished by establishing...a library...on the sex deviant theme; by sponsoring public discussions...to be conducted by leading members of the legal psychiatric, religious and other professions; by advocating a mode of behavior and dress acceptable to society.
  2. Education of the public...leading to an eventual breakdown of erroneous taboos and prejudices...
  3. Participation in research projects by duly authorized and responsible psychologists, sociologists, and other such experts directed towards further knowledge of the homosexual.
  4. Investigation of the penal code as it pertain to the homosexual, proposal of changes,...and promotion of these changes through the due process of law in the state legislatures." [18]

Education of the variant

From the beginning, The Ladder sought to reach out to women who were isolated by assuring them in essays and editorials that they were not alone. It also sought to educate women about legal issues—the Daughters of Bilitis stood to serve women as a social alternative to bars, where gays were frequently arrested in the 1950s. Contributions often featured essays on famous lesbians and bisexual women throughout history such as Radclyffe Hall, [19] Queen Christina, [20] and Renée Vivien. [21]

Contributions by attorneys, psychiatrists, and doctors were common as were advice columns on how to raise children while being a "deviant". [22] Marion Zimmer Bradley offered advice on whether to stay married after one knows she is a lesbian. [23] And the issue of marriage was brought up again in 1959 when The Ladder reported on a panel discussion sponsored by the Daughters of Bilitis that debated if marriage could cure homosexuality, all opinions of psychotherapists at hand saying that it could not, and one offering that it was not to be cured as it was not a disease. [24] A 1957 column featuring a psychotherapist who offered his opinion on how one determines the source of lesbians' fear of men: "The basic problem in evaluating your personal problems is to find out why you are shying away from sexual relations with men. In other words, the problem is not why you like women, but why you don't like men." [25] Forrest J Ackerman wrote two articles under his pseudonym LauraJean Ermayne (normally used for writing lesbian pulp fiction) [26] and was declared an "honorary lesbian" for his contributions. [27]

The Daughters of Bilitis also sponsored presentations on how to accept oneself as homosexual in an overwhelming negative society. "Many creative fields lie ahead of you IF you will stop despising yourselves, stop being ashamed and start creating a place for yourselves on this earth. It is not inconceivable. There are societies in the past which allowed homosexuals their place," said one visiting psychotherapist. [28]

The Ladder vs. Ann Aldrich

Poetry submissions began almost immediately, as did short story submissions with lesbian themes. Book reviews of current paperbacks were regular features, including a heated exchange in print between contributors to The Ladder and author Marijane Meaker as Ann Aldrich from 1957 to 1963. Meaker had written the immensely successful Spring Fire in 1952 under the name Vin Packer and was known to the Daughters of Bilitis. Meaker's books We Walk Alone from 1955 and We, Too, Must Love from 1958 were her version of Donald Webster Cory's The Homosexual in America , a nonfiction account published in 1951 about what it was like to live as a gay man in the US. [29] Meaker's books, published by Gold Medal Books, were distributed all over the US, and gave people in remote places an idea of what it was like to live as a lesbian. The books, however, were not particularly sympathetic to lesbians, and Del Martin and Barbara Grier took issue with Meaker's portrayals. They began to criticize the books in The Ladder and suggest that Meaker was expressing self-hatred in the books. [30] [31] [32] [33] Del Martin wrote to Meaker personally in 1958, giving her a free subscription to the magazine. Meaker's reach to women was much broader through the distribution of her books, and she received so much mail from women asking for resources and support that she was unable to respond to all of it, so she referred the letter writers to the Daughters of Bilitis. [7] However, in print, Meaker responded to the open letters to her in The Ladder in her next book Carol in a Thousand Cities in 1960, by skewering the magazine's amateurish homemade appearance, fiction and poetry she did not appreciate, and the ideas presented in the magazine. Again, The Ladder responded, once more calling Meaker's loyalties into question. [34] [35] [36] However negative Carol in a Thousand Cities was to The Ladder, it was major advertising for the DOB and letters poured in for them from all over the U.S.

Gender expression

The Daughters of Bilitis initially approached relations between lesbians and the heterosexual society at large by promoting assimilation as much as possible, in the hopes that heterosexuals would see that lesbians were not drastically different from themselves. [37] The debate about the appropriateness and impact of women exhibiting masculine dress and behavior was carried out in the pages of The Ladder. [38] "The kids in the fly-front pants and with the butch haircuts and mannish manner are the worst publicity we can get", wrote one reader in 1956, to which DOB President D. Griffin responded, "Our organization has already touched on that matter and converted a few to remembering that they are women first and a butch for fem secondly, so their attire should be that which society will accept. Contrary to belief, we have shown them that there is a place for them in society, but only if they wish to make it so." [37]

In June 1957 a defense of some women's choice to wear pants was published under the title, "Transvestism—A Cross-Cultural Survey". [39] The November issue of the same year reprinted editorial sections from The San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle that begged women not to wear pants: "When ladies young and old wear sloppy slacks or tight pants on Market St. I wish I had a water pistol and could give each one of them a good squirt. Ladies, please be ladies." [40] However, in the same issue, an essay encouraged women to broaden their definition of femininity: "Of course we can (accept our femininity) if only we enlarge our view to include all women: the gentle, the shy the brave, the meek, the enterprising, the flamboyant..." [41] The issue of pants was brought up again in 1959 with the reprint of a UPI story stating the women in pants was to become fashionable that year, [42] and again when Gene Damon wrote an overview of women who had lived as men throughout Western history. [43]

When the Daughters of Bilitis or the Mattachine Society had a convention, the news was reported. The magazine compiled some of the first statistics about lesbians in the United States by sending their readership questionnaires, the first in 1957 and again in 1963. There was a marked difference in the tone of the magazine after Barbara Gittings heard Frank Kameny speak at the national DOB convention that attempting to find the cause of homosexuality was a waste of time since it was equal to heterosexuality. [14] Many articles from 1956 to 1963 focused on ways to function in an overwhelmingly homophobic world, but gradually articles began to appear that were unapologetic in promoting lesbianism.

After Barbara Grier took over, artwork began to appear on the cover from artists such as Romaine Brooks and Georgia O'Keeffe. Contributions by writers included articles by Jane Rule, Martha Shelley, and Rita Mae Brown.

Ernestine Eckstein

Much of what is known about Ernestine Eckstein's beliefs and life is taken from an interview in The Ladder in June 1966. Eckstein was one of two women of color to be featured on the cover of the magazine. The importance of Eckstein's issue of The Ladder should not be underestimated: "Her image on the cover, and her ideas throughout the pages of The Ladder, helped greatly to complicate notions of the kinds of women who were involved in DOB and expanded definitions of lesbian identity". [44] Her coverage in The Ladder is the only known published piece that substantially features Eckstein.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon</span> American feminists and gay-rights activists

Dorothy Louise Taliaferro "Del" Martin and Phyllis Ann Lyon were an American lesbian couple based in San Francisco who were known as feminist and gay-rights activists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daughters of Bilitis</span> First American lesbian civil rights group

The Daughters of Bilitis, also called the DOB or the Daughters, was the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States. The organization, formed in San Francisco in 1955, was initially conceived as a secret social club, an alternative to lesbian bars, which were subject to raids and police harassment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ONE, Inc.</span> American gay rights organization

One, Inc., or One Incorporated, was one of the first gay rights organizations in the United States, founded in 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian pulp fiction</span> Genre of fiction

Lesbian pulp fiction is a genre of lesbian literature that refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel or pulp magazine with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 1960s by many of the same paperback publishing houses as other genres of fiction, including westerns, romances, and detective fiction. Because very little other literature was available for and about lesbians at this time, quite often these books were the only reference the public had for modeling what lesbians were. English professor Stephanie Foote commented on the importance of lesbian pulp novels to the lesbian identity prior to the rise of organized feminism: "Pulps have been understood as signs of a secret history of readers, and they have been valued because they have been read. The more they are read, the more they are valued, and the more they are read, the closer the relationship between the very act of circulation and reading and the construction of a lesbian community becomes…. Characters use the reading of novels as a way to understand that they are not alone." Joan Nestle refers to lesbian pulp fiction as “survival literature.” Lesbian pulp fiction provided representation for lesbian identities, brought a surge of awareness to lesbians, and created space for lesbian organizing leading up to Stonewall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marijane Meaker</span> American writer (1927–2022)

Marijane Agnes Meaker was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Gittings</span> Librarian, LGBT rights activist (1932–2007)

Barbara Gittings was a prominent American activist for LGBT equality. She organized the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) from 1958 to 1963, edited the national DOB magazine The Ladder from 1963 to 1966, and worked closely with Frank Kameny in the 1960s on the first picket lines that brought attention to the ban on employment of gay people by the largest employer in the US at that time: the United States government. Her early experiences with trying to learn more about lesbianism fueled her lifetime work with libraries. In the 1970s, Gittings was most involved in the American Library Association, especially its gay caucus, the first such in a professional organization, in order to promote positive literature about homosexuality in libraries. She was a part of the movement to get the American Psychiatric Association to drop homosexuality as a mental illness in 1972. Her self-described life mission was to tear away the "shroud of invisibility" related to homosexuality, which had theretofore been associated with crime and mental illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Grier</span> American writer and publisher (1933-2011)

Barbara Grier was an American writer and publisher. She is credited for having built the lesbian book industry. After editing The Ladder magazine, published by the lesbian civil rights group Daughters of Bilitis, she co-founded a lesbian book-publishing company Naiad Press, which achieved publicity and became the world's largest publisher of lesbian books. She built a major collection of lesbian literature, catalogued with detailed indexing of topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kay Lahusen</span> American photographer, writer, and activist (1930–2021)

Katherine Lahusen was an American photographer, writer and gay rights activist. She was the first openly lesbian American photojournalist. Under Lahusen's art direction, photographs of lesbians appeared on the cover of The Ladder for the first time. It was one of many projects she undertook with partner Barbara Gittings, who was then The Ladder's editor. As an activist, Lahusen was involved with the founding of the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) in 1970 and the removal of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). She contributed writing and photographs to a New York–based Gay Newsweekly and Come Out!, and co-authored two books: The Gay Crusaders in 1972 with Randy Wicker and Love and Resistance: Out of the Closet into the Stonewall Era, collecting their photographs with Diana Davies in 2019.

The North American Conference of Homophile Organizations was an umbrella organization for a number of homophile organizations. Founded in 1966, the goal of NACHO was to expand coordination among homophile organizations throughout the Americas. Homophile activists were motivated in part by an increase in mainstream media attention to gay issues. Some feared that without a centralized organization, the movement would be hijacked, in the words of founding member Foster Gunnison Jr., by "fringe elements, beatniks, and other professional non-conformists".

The Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH) was a San Francisco, California, United States-based organization founded in 1964 for the purpose of joining homosexual activists and religious leaders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Shelley</span> American lesbian feminist activist

Martha Shelley is an American activist, writer, and poet best known for her involvement in lesbian feminist activism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernestine Eckstein</span> American gay rights activist (1941–1992)

Ernestine Eckstein was an African-American woman who helped steer the United States Lesbian and Gay rights movement during the 1960s. She was a leader in the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). Her influence helped the DOB move away from negotiating with medical professionals and towards tactics of public demonstrations. Her understanding of, and work in, the Civil Rights Movement lent valuable experience on public protest to the lesbian and gay movement. Eckstein worked among activists such as Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, Barbara Gittings, Franklin Kameny, and Randy Wicker. In the 1970s she became involved in the black feminist movement, in particular the organization Black Women Organized for Action (BWOA).

Focus: A Journal for Lesbians was an American lesbian magazine that was published from 1970 to 1983.

Helen Jane "Sandy" Sandoz, also known by her pseudonym Helen Sanders, was an American lesbian rights activist and writer. She was involved in the Daughters of Bilitis and its official publication, The Ladder, from 1956 to 1970.

Stella Rush, also known by her pen name Sten Russell, was an American journalist and LGBT rights activist. She was a regular reporter for the gay rights magazine ONE (1954–1961) and the lesbian rights magazine The Ladder (1957–1968).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Willer</span> American feminist and activist

Shirley Willer was an American feminist and activist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Willer joined the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in the 1950s and became the president of the organization a few years after. Because of her energy and dedication, she helped to revolutionize the homophile movement in the 1960s and helped pave the way for future civil rights advancements for the gay community.

Equal is an American documentary television series produced by Scout Productions, Berlanti Productions, Raintree Ventures, That's Wonderful Productions, and Warner Horizon Unscripted Television. The four-part series chronicles landmark events and leaders in LGBTQ history, and consists of a mixture of archival footage and scripted reenactments. Equal stars several actors including Samira Wiley, Jamie Clayton, and Anthony Rapp. The series premiered on HBO Max on October 22, 2020.

Billye Talmadge, also known as Billie Tallmij, was a lesbian American activist and educator at the forefront of the burgeoning gay liberation movement in the 1950-60s as well as a founding member of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first organization established to fight explicitly for lesbian civil and political rights in the United States. Her main focus was empowering lesbian youth through education and counseling at a time when many homosexual and lesbian voices had been silenced by the current social and political climate.

Cleo Bonner, also known as Cleo Glenn, served as president of the Daughters of Bilitis and circulation manager of The Ladder magazine in the 1960s. She was one of the first African-American women to belong to this organization. Barbara Gittings referred to Cleo Glenn as a "fireball".

Florence Irene Jaffy, also known as Florence Conrad, was an American economist. She taught at the College of San Mateo, and was research director of the Daughters of Bilitis.

References

  1. "Ann Ferguson is Dead!". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 4. January 1957. p. 7.
  2. 1 2 Lo, Malinda (November 1, 2005). "Back in the Day: The Ladder, America's First National Lesbian Magazine". AfterEllen. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012.
  3. Lyon, Phyllis (1959). "S.F. Election Aftermath". The Ladder. Vol. 4, no. 3. p. 23.
  4. Tobin, Kay; Wicker, Randy (1975). The Gay Crusaders. Arno Press. ISBN   0405073747. OCLC   1922404.
  5. "Where Did We Get Your Name?". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 5. February 1957. p. 12.
  6. Martin, Del (October 1957). "Growing Pains Don't Hurt". The Ladder. Vol. 2, no. 1. pp. 5–6, 27.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gallo, Marcia (2006). Different Daughters: A history of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Birth of the Lesbian Rights Movement. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN   9781580052528. OCLC   428151629.
  8. L.H.N. (May 1957). "Readers Respond". The Ladder. 1 (8): 26–28. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  9. Gallo, Marcia (May–June 2005). "Celebrating the Years of The Ladder". off our backs . Vol. 35, no. 5–6. Washington. p. 34.
  10. "Daughters of Bilitis records, 1955–1986". Library Special Collections. Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
  11. Nichols, Jack (August 30, 1999). "Lilli Vincenz: A Lesbian Pioneer". Gay Today. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  12. "Kay Lahusen". Ncourageu.org. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  13. Gittings, Barbara (March 13, 2007). Barbara Gittings Tribute RIP (video). Gay Filmmakers' Consortium. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved November 10, 2007.
  14. 1 2 Soares, Maneula (1998). "The Purloined Ladder: Its Place in Lesbian History". Journal of Homosexuality. 34 (3–4). The Haworth Press: 27–49. doi:10.1300/J082v34n03_03. PMID   9505224.
  15. Rush, Stella (2014). "Helen Sandoz a.k.a. Helen Sanders a.k.a. Ben Cat (1920–1987)". In Dececco, John; Bullough, Vern L. (eds.). Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. Routledge. pp. 145–147. ISBN   978-1-317-76628-5.
  16. Jones, Sonya L. (2014). Gay and Lesbian Literature Since World War II: History and Memory. Routledge. p. 40. ISBN   978-1-317-97115-3.
  17. 1 2 Streitmatter, Rodger (1995). Unspeakable: The rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America. Fabe & Faber. p. 153. ISBN   0-571-19873-2.
  18. Katz, Jonathan (1974). Gay American History. Crowell Publishers.
  19. Damon, Gene (December 1958). "Radclyffe Hall". The Ladder. Vol. 3, no. 3. p. 8.
  20. Damon, Gene; Stuart, L. (June 1963). "The Tragedy of Queen Christina". The Ladder. Vol. 7, no. 9. p. 6.
  21. Dawn, Gene; Stuart, Lee (May 1959). "Renee Vivien: Forgotten Lesbian Poet". The Ladder. Vol. 3, no. 8. p. 12.
  22. " "Relationship Not So 'Deviant' If Child Has Love and Security". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 7. April 1957. p. 8.
  23. Bradley, Marion Zimmer (July 1957). "Some Remarks on Marriage". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 10. p. 14.
  24. Brown, Patti (May 1959). "Should Homosexuals Marry?". The Ladder. Vol. 3, no. 8. p. 21.
  25. "Third Discussion on Fear". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 4. January 1957. pp. 4–6.
  26. Mayne, Judith (2000). Framed: Lesbians, Feminists, and Media Culture. U. of Minnesota Press. pp. xix–xx.
  27. Matthesen, Elise (November 24, 1995). "Vampires and Aliens: Pam Keesey and Eleanor Arnason". Lavender Lifestyles. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  28. "Accept Yourself". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 8. May 1957. p. 6.
  29. Meeker, Martin (2006). Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s–1970s. U. of Chicago Press.
  30. "Walk Alone (Book)". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 9. June 1957. p. 15.
  31. "Aldrich 'Walks Alone'". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 9. June 1957. p. 16.
  32. B.G. (January 1958). "Ann Aldrich Does a Re-take". The Ladder. Vol. 2, no. 4. p. 12.
  33. Martin, Del (April 1958). "Open Letter to Ann Aldrich". The Ladder. Vol. 2, no. 7. p. 4.
  34. Damon, Gene (August 1960). "Carol in a Thousand Cities". The Ladder. Vol. 4, no. 11. pp. 6–7.
  35. Foster, Jeannette H. (August 1960). "Ann of 10,000 Words Plus (Short Story)". The Ladder. Vol. 4, no. 11. p. 7.
  36. Damon, Gene (October 1963). "We Two Won't Last" (PDF). The Ladder. Vol. 8, no. 1. pp. 18–20.
  37. 1 2 Esterberg, Kristen (September 1994). "From Accommodation to Liberation: A Social Movement Analysis of Lesbians in the Homophile Movement". Gender & Society . 8 (3): 424–443. doi:10.1177/089124394008003008. S2CID   144795512.
  38. McAndrew, Malia (June 18, 2021), ""There is something chic about women wearing men's clothes"", The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics, London: Routledge, pp. 157–166, doi:10.4324/9780429283734-19, ISBN   978-0-429-28373-4, S2CID   237932980 , retrieved February 17, 2022
  39. Stephens, Barbara (June 1957). "Tranvestitism—A Cross-Cultural Survey". The Ladder. Vol. 1, no. 9. p. 10.
  40. McDermott, John B (November 1957). "On Wearing Slacks". The Ladder. Vol. 2, no. 2. p. 11.
  41. Simons, Betty (November 1957). "On Accepting Femininity". The Ladder. Vol. 2, no. 2. p. 12.
  42. "Women In Pants – The Coming Thing". The Ladder. Vol. 3, no. 4. January 1959. p. 6.
  43. Damon, Gene (February 1959). "Transvestism in Women". The Ladder. Vol. 3, no. 5. p. 11.
  44. "Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600–2000". Alexander Street Press.

Further reading