In the early 1950s, Lorraine Hansberry left her home in Chicago to pursue a writing career in New York City. Lorraine was talented and soon started writing for Freedom, a monthly newspaper run by civil rights activists Paul Robeson and Louis E. Burnham. The paper focused on Black people and Black issues, which annoyed white readers because they felt excluded. It was fine, though, because white people had countless other newspapers to read that solely focused on white people and white issues, like how to remove Black people from their neighbourhoods. That was a big white issue. Freedom’s motto was ‘Where one is enslaved, all are in chains’ and the publication often urged its readers to recognise and challenge white people nonsense such as racism, racism and rhymes with shrayshrism. Lorraine Hansberry’s role was to give the newspaper a feminist perspective on Black oppression, which she showcased through her involvement with Sojourners for Truth and Justice, a Black women’s human rights organisation. Lorraine had also experienced oppression when white people with their white issues attempted to remove her family from their house on the grounds that it was a white neighbourhood. Another reason why she was perfect for the job.
Around the same time, in San Francisco, Del Martin and her girlfriend Phyllis Lyon had many gay male friends but no lesbian friends. The gay male friends thought this was weird, so they introduced Del and Phyllis to their other lesbian friends. Let’s be honest, the gay male friends obviously didn’t want to hang out with Del and Phyllis anymore. Whatever the deal was, it worked, because Del, Phyllis and their newly acquainted lesbian friends quickly became Best Lesbian Friends who then made other lesbian friends which mutated into a Massive Lesbian Enterprise.
One evening, probably while out bowling, one lesbian friend announced to the group that she wanted to create a political lesbian social club. She explained that the group would aim to discuss lesbian politics, the social structure of the patriarchy, and bring more focus on going down on one another rather than just using fingers. I may have made up the last bit, but I feel like it was probably touched upon.
However, the biggest reason for the political lesbian social club was so that this lesbian friend could have a place to dance because, at the time, same-sex dancing was banned, and lesbians love nothing more than a slow dance. They love equality and enfranchisement too, but let’s face it, an emotionally charged slow dance really is an integral part of lesbian culture.
The rest of the Massive Lesbian Enterprise agreed and elected Del as president. They then came up with a name, a name that was obscure enough not to attract attention from the straights but obvious enough for the lesbians to figure out. Hence, ‘The Daughters of Bilitis’, or DOB for short. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lesbian enough to figure it out, and for those of you who feel the same way, ‘Bilitis’ was the name given to the fictional lesbian friend of Sappho, created by the French poet Pierre Louÿs. If you already knew that, you get ten lesbian points and a free toaster oven. If you know, you know.
The DOB were unable to promote their lesbian political club because what media outlet would want to promote lesbians? It was decided that they would have to do it themselves, so instead of handing out flyers or sticking posters on walls, they did what Freedom had done before them and what minorities have been doing since the beginning of time: they created their very own media outlet. Thus, The Ladder was born.
While the Europeans had been bashing out lesbian magazines for some time, it took the US until 1956 to produce what was one of the first nationally distributed lesbian magazines in the country. This is unsurprising considering it also took the US until 2015 to legalise same-sex marriage. The first edition included a DOB mission statement that highlighted some of the major problems that lesbians had to deal with, such as a lack of lesbian healthcare and an absence of lesbianism from history. But, rather ironically, the DOB refused to use the word ‘lesbian’, and referred to themselves as ‘variants’ instead.
Meanwhile, back in New York, Lorraine Hansberry had married theatre producer Robert Nemiroff. Some people might suggest this was a marriage of convenience, since Lorraine had been writing to the editors of The Ladder telling them that she was, in fact, a massive lesbian.