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Daughters of Bilitis, Minorities Research Group, and Resistance Formation in the International Lesbian Network

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Daughters of Bilitis, Minorities Research Group, and Resistance Formation in the International Lesbian Network UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones May 2017 Reaching across Land and Ocean: Daughters of Bilitis, Minorities Research Group, and Resistance Formation in the International Lesbian Network Linsey Scriven University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the United States History Commons Repository Citation Scriven, Linsey, "Reaching across Land and Ocean: Daughters of Bilitis, Minorities Research Group, and Resistance Formation in the International Lesbian Network" (2017). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 3030. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/10986134 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REACHING ACROSS LAND AND OCEAN: DAUGHTERS OF BILITIS, MINORITIES RESEARCH GROUP, AND RESISTANCE FORMATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL LESBIAN NETWORK By Linsey Scriven Bachelor of Arts – Journalism and Media Studies University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2013 Master of Fine Arts – English and Creative Writing Mills College 2015 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts – History Department of History College of Liberal Arts The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 2017 Copyright 2017 Linsey Scriven All Rights Reserved Thesis Approval The Graduate College The University of Nevada, Las Vegas April 5, 2017 This thesis prepared by Linsey Scriven entitled Reaching Across Land and Ocean: Daughters of Bilitis, Minorities Research Group, and Resistance Formation in the International Lesbian Network is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts – History Department of History Marcia Gallo, Ph.D. Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D. Examination Committee Chair Graduate College Interim Dean Jeff Schauer, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Joanne Goodwin, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Barbara Brents, Ph.D. Graduate College Faculty Representative ii Abstract From 1964 to 1972, the lesbian rights organizations, Daughters of Bilitis and Minorities Research Group, shaped the resistance of lesbians in North America and Europe by providing a platform to challenge harmful narratives about lesbianism in their magazines, The Ladder and Arena Three. This thesis is the first to examine the close relationship of the Daughters of Bilitis and Minorities Research Group, and how their collaboration helped lesbians in the international lesbian network move from the shadows onto the international stage years before Stonewall. More often than not, DOB and MRG leaders could not agree on what was “best” for lesbians, and these disagreements strengthened their resistance by forcing them to consider other tactics in elevating the lesbian reputation. Correspondence, both private and published, advocated for this greater visibility and helped many lesbians feel less isolated during an era when lesbianism was broadly condemned. Both organizations laid the groundwork for later lesbian rights groups by providing examples of how to use international networks to broaden the reach of local activism. iii Acknowledgements Thank you to my committee, especially Dr. Marcia M. Gallo and Dr. Jeff Schauer. I would not have been able to accomplish this thesis without your expert guidance. Thank you to the Lesbian Herstory Archives for providing web-access to their video and audio interviews of the Daughters of Bilitis—this thesis would not have been as successful without this resource. Thank you to the History Department for teaching me how to be a historian and giving me a platform to mold my pedagogy; to my fellow graduate students for reassuring me of my strengths and my “scrappiness.” Thank you to Maryse for all of your love and support; to Emylia for always being willing to debate LGBT matters; to Rita for always being there for me. iv Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: “Our Need Was Greater than Our Shame” The Daughters of Bilitis and The Ladder 10 Chapter 2: Headshrinkers and Terribly Brainy Women Minorities Research Group and Arena Three 31 Chapter 3: Trading Letters across the Atlantic: The Relationship of the Daughters of Bilitis and Minorities Research Group 54 Conclusion 77 Bibliography 81 Curriculum Vitae 88 v Introduction In 1970, Venice Ostwald writing as “Val Vanderwood” argued in The Ladder that the “American Lesbians who visit England these days have a pleasant surprise in store because the contemporary Lesbian scene is healthily upbeat, expanding, and communicative! The past decade, in fact, has been as progressive a change as a walk from darkness into dawn.” Although Ostwald celebrated these achievements in England, she understood that “to achieve maximum success, however, we must somehow gain more volunteer leadership and support, in both England and America, for our Lesbian organizations and publications.” Ostwald saw that the potential of this network of lesbians went far beyond helping women around the globe feel better about themselves. She called for an “international Lesbian organization, or at least an international subsection as part of our existing organizations” because “as mankind keeps rediscovering, we humans need to try for the Impossible, need to reach out—for the moon, certainly, but also for human understanding. [We] are urgently needed for the ‘Well of Loneliness’ revolution in England, in America, and the world over.”1 By likening lesbian leadership to the moon landing, Ostwald insisted that achievements in the fight for equality for lesbians affected mainstream society on a large scale. The ties between American and British lesbians not only increased same-sex representation, but also broadened lesbian agency across national borders. While the popular narrative claims that Stonewall was the moment in which gays and lesbians “came out of the closet,” my thesis argues that the international lesbian network helped lesbians move from the shadows onto the international stage years before that night in New York City in 1969. Correspondence, both private and published, advocated for this greater visibility in the media and everyday life, and the 1 Val Vanderwood, “Lesbian Life in England,” The Ladder, April-May 1970, 6-9. 1 resistance of American and British lesbians was strengthened by the close relationship between the first national American and British lesbian organizations: Daughters of Bilitis and Minorities Research Group. In 1955, a group of lesbians established the Daughters of Bilitis to build up the San Francisco lesbian community, but with the arrival of their magazine The Ladder a year later, their aims soon expanded to include lesbians across North America and Europe. Minorities Research Group formed eight years later to elevate the lesbian reputation in Britain. They challenged persistent narratives of lesbianism in medicine and the media, and they created the magazine Arena Three to advertise the group, its social activities, and to bring lesbian content to women who felt isolated because of their sexuality. With help from the DOB, the magazine successfully reached women across Europe, North America, and elsewhere. Martin Meeker in Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s-1970s argues that lesbians participated in “communication networks” when consuming lesbian media such as The Ladder and Arena Three, and these networks acted as “engines of social change and cultural invention” and stimulated “the very processes by which individuals encounter ideas about identity and then articulate their own.”2 Both organizations offered lesbians in the international network a platform to shape their lesbian identity, which involved challenging harmful narratives about lesbianism and holding debates about how to best improve lesbian representation in media. More often than not, leaders of The Ladder and Arena Three could not agree on what was “best” for lesbians, and these disagreements strengthened their resistance by forcing them to consider the diverse experiences of lesbians. My thesis defines resistance as a lesbian creating a safe space to explore her sexual 2 Martin Meeker, Contacts Desire: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s-1970s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 11-15. 2 identity, and for many in the international network, this safe space meant consuming The Ladder and Arena Three in the privacy of their own homes. Some lesbians read letters from other countries and believed life for their sisters was better in another land. Women on the European continent read The Ladder and Arena Three and wondered just how Americans and Britons were able to establish lesbian rights organizations. Many shared the same ambitions in literature and politics, and turned to others in the network to make these ambitions reality. This international interaction was also vital to
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