The Pre-Gay Era in the USA

The Homosexual Rights Movement in the US, 1950-1969

Researched and Written by C. Todd White, Ph.D.

This exhibit features homosexual rights organizations and publications in the U.S. from the 1950s to 1969. It provides exciting primary sources such as articles from ONE and Tangents magazines, a complete inventory of ONE’s Blanche M. Baker Library as it was in 1965, biographical profiles of key activists of the era, images of covers of pulp novels from the 1950s and ’60s, and a complete index of the contents of ONE, Mattachine Review, and The Ladder.

Content Index: The Pre-Gay Era in the USA

• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Movement Pioneers (Biographical Profiles and Interviews)
• Blanche M. Baker Memorial Library
• Correspondence between Don Slater and Dale Jennings
• Historical Timelines
  • History of ONE, Incorporated
• History / Historical Documents
• Pulp Fiction Collection
• Pulp Nonfiction Books
• Table of Known Pseudonyms
• Other Web Resources

Overview

Every gay and lesbian organization in the country, and most across the world, can trace its origins to one night in the fall of 1950 when five men met in Silver Lake, near downtown Los Angeles, to form a clandestine organization they called Mattachine. By 1952, Mattachine was no longer a secret society but an active and dynamic social force, an ever-increasing body of men and women who demanded equal rights and fair treatment for homosexuals.

The Pre-Gay Era in the USA is the period of the homosexual/homophile movement, which spans the period between World War II and the Stonewall rebellion of June 1969. The three primary organizations in the nation fighting for homosexual rights during this time were the Mattachine Society; ONE, Incorporated; and the Daughters of Bilitis.

ONE Magazine was launched in January of 1953, created by Mattachine members and other Los Angeles activists, and it rapidly became the nation’s first successful publication dedicated to homosexual issues. A few months later, in the spring of 1953, the Mattachine Foundation restructured itself to become the Mattachine Society. In 1955, four lesbian couples formed the Daughters of Bilitis, and in October of 1956 they began publishing The Ladder. In 1957, the Mattachine Society it moved its headquarters to San Francisco, where, under the leadership of Hal Call, it continued to publish the Mattachine Review.

This exhibit will record the history of these three organizations and their publications in as much detail as possible and in a culturally sensitive manner.

Todd White’s Introduction

In the early 1990s, Homosexual Information Center President Don Slater conceived the idea of making the HIC’s materials available online. Unfortunately, he died before he could see the project started. C. Todd White decided to pursue Slater’s vision in 1999 when he moved to Los Angeles and began studying this history and working with many of the elders of the movement who still lived in the area. White’s goal became to preserve HIC’s material in a legitimate archives while providing online access to the public through the Internet. His vision became realized last year when HIC’s collection became part of the Vern and Bonnie Bullough Collection on Human Sexuality, curated by Oviatt Library at California State University Northridge, and now, with the creation of this website, through CLAGS.

This exhibit is the result of Dr. White’s ongoing study of the homosexual/homophile movement in the United States. Though primarily a historical endeavor, his training and experience in cultural anthropology causes him to value and use ethnographic methods involving fieldwork, focused and life-history interviews, and participant observation.

White secured his Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Southern California in 2005 and has recently converted his dissertation into a book, titled Pre-Gay L.A.: A Social History of the Movement for Homosexual Rights, that is to be published by the University of Illinois Press in the spring of 2009.

Invitation to Participate

This exhibit will strive to be as comprehensive as possible, and to that aim we encourage comments and submissions from those knowledgeable in the field. If you would like to submit biographical profiles, transcribed interviews, book reviews, photographs, insights, or corrections, please contact Dr. White at todd@tangentroup.org. Where necessary, copyright information and rights must be provided in order for us to publish the materials.

This exhibit is sponsored and provided by the Homosexual Information Center, a non-profit surviving aspect of ONE, Incorporated that was formed in 1965 and incorporated in 1968. Dr. White’s research has been sponsored in part by ISHR, the Institute for the Study of Human Resources, the other surviving legal aspect of ONE, Incorporated.

This entry is part of the featured exhibit The Pre-Gay Era in the USA curated by C. Todd White. As it is content created by a named author, editor, or curator, it is not open to editing by the general public. But we strongly encourage you to discuss the content or propose edits on the discussion page, and the author, editor, or curator will make any changes that improve the entry or its content. Thanks.