History of ONE, Incorporated
The following history of ONE, Incorporated was created by C. Todd White as a part of his doctoral dissertation in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Southern California. It was originaly published in 2004 as part of the website for the [Homosexual Information Center]
This timeline links to several primary documents, such as court documents, corporate minutes and records, and letters of resignation and corrospondence of several of the pioneers of the early movement for homosexual rights in the United States.
White’s book Pre-Gay L.A.: A Social History for the Movement for Homosexual Rights will be published by the University of Illinois Press in Spring, 2009, and it will reference many of the documents linked tofrom this part of the website.
Significant Events in the history of ONE, Incorporated
- 1947
- June: “Lisa Ben” (an anagram for Lesbian), publishes Vice Versa: America’s Gayest Magazine, the first regularly published newsletter in the United States dedicated to homosexual issues. The newsletter was typewritten at her employers, RKO Studios in Los Angeles. Ben distributed 16 copies to friends such as Jim Kepner
- 1948
- Alfred Kinsey et al.’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male is published, asserting that one in three American males had experienced some form of homosexual experience in their lifetime and that between four and eight per-cent were exclusively homosexual
- February: Final (ninth) issue of Vice Versa distributed
- August: Harry Hay attends a beer bust near the University of Southern California campus, where the idea is sprung to start an organization called “Bachelors for Wallace.” Upon returning home that night, he began his first draft of a prospectus to form an organization dedicated to the welfare of homosexuals
- 1949
- Publication of NIal Kent’s The Divided Path
- 1950
- Physique Pictorial magazine is first published, by Bob Mizer
- (Future activist) Betty Berzon moves to Los Angeles
- James Barr’s Quatrefoil published by Greenberg
- President Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450, citing “sexual perversions” as reasons for preventing homosexuals from being employed by the federal government
