What is the history of The Ladder?

For many gay and bisexual women in the 1950s and 1960s, The Ladder, published by the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), provided their first hint that there were others like themselves. Its pages, according to Manuela Soares, "provide a history of the lesbian rights movement in the United States as it existed in the latter half of the 20th century."

The Ladder was not the first-ever American lesbian publication—an honor that belongs to Vice Versa, a small newsletter written and distributed by Edythe Eyde, under the pseudonym "Lisa Ben," in Los Angeles in the late 1940s. However, The Ladder was the first long-running lesbian magazine with a national readership.

The first issue appeared in October 1956, edited by Phyllis Lyon, who, with her partner, Del Martin, had co-founded DOB —the first U.S. lesbian organization—the previous year. Initially a 12-page newsletter typed and mimeographed by volunteers, The Ladder included short stories, poetry, news, research findings, book reviews, and letters from around the world. It also featured announcements of meetings and social activities, and served as the main vehicle through which DOB communicated with its members.

At a time when most women’s magazines were filled with recipes for meatloaf, writes community historian Marcia Gallo, "The Ladder helped develop a lesbian identity and feminist culture in the era before the women’s liberation movement." Its early contributors—some using pseudonyms or initials— included science fiction author Marion Zimmer Bradley, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, novelist May Sarton, and Ann Weldy (aka pulp novelist Ann Bannon).

Though available by subscription and for sale at newsstands in major cities, The Ladder was mainly passed from hand to hand. Circulation reached several hundred within a few years, and nearly 4,000 by the time the magazine ceased publication. A 1959 survey revealed that the average reader was white, in her early 30s, lived in a city, and had a higher education and income level than women in the general population.

By 1960, Martin began editing The Ladder after stepping down as DOB president. Lyon and Martin were involved in the larger progressive movements of the day, and the magazine featured news about gay issues, the women’s movement, and the civil rights struggle, as well as strictly lesbian content. In 1963, the editorship passed to Barbara Gittings, who lived in Philadelphia and founded the New York City DOB chapter.Gittings embraced public protest demanding gay rights and rejected the prevalent notion of homosexuality as a mental illness. She added "A Lesbian Review" to the journal’s title and began running cover photographs of real lesbians, often taken by her lover, Kay Tobin Lahusen. Gittings later recalled that she did so "to show right on the cover of the magazine that lesbians were wholesome, healthy, normal human beings."

Further changes came about in the mid-1960s under the editorship of Helen "Sandy" Sandoz, who gave The Ladder a less political slant. During her tenure, frequent contributor Barbara Grier, then living in Kansas City, sought a larger role in the magazine, and Sandoz turned over the editorship at the 1968 DOB convention. Grier—who had written The Ladder’s popular "Lesbiana" media review column since the late 1950s under the pen name Gene Damon—took the magazine in a more militant direction, reflecting her personal political evolution and that of the lesbian-feminist movement. She also sought to professionalize the publication, often coming into conflict with DOB leaders who were more focused on the organization than its newsletter.

Beset by struggles between the "variant" women of the homophile era and younger radical lesbian-feminists, DOB officially disbanded at its national convention in August 1970 (though some local chapters continued). A few months prior, DOB national president Rita LaPorte had obtained the sole copy of the magazine’s subscriber list, as well as the plates from the mailing house, and she and Grier began publishing The Ladder as an independent publication based in Reno, Nev. While Grier later claimed the move was necessary to save the magazine from a dying organization, to this day Lyon and Martin maintain that it was a theft.

By their second issue, Grier and LaPorte added a new statement of purpose: "Initially, The Ladder’s goal was limited to achieving the rights accorded heterosexual women, that is, full second-class citizenship...The Ladder’s purpose today is to raise all women to full human status." Grier expanded the publication and emphasized quality art and writing, including contributions by authors such as Jane Rule and Rita Mae Brown. Within two years, however, the magazine had run out of funds, and the last issue was published in August 1972. Soon thereafter, Grier co-founded Naiad Press, using The Ladder’s mailing list to announce her new venture.

In the years that followed, a variety of lesbian-feminist publications filled the void, including Lesbian Tide, Sinister Wisdom, and off our backs. But The Ladder retains its singular place in history. "For gay women who came across a copy in the early days, The Ladder was a lifeline," writes Gallo. "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."

For further information:

• Gallo, Marcia. 2006. Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of Lesbian Activism (Carroll & Graf).

• Soares, Manuela. 1998. "The Purloined Ladder: Its Place in Lesbian History." In Gay and Lesbian Literature Since World War II: History and Memory, ed. by Sonya Jones (Haworth).