Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement (Hardcover)

~ Marcia M. Gallo (Author)
Key Phrases: other homophile groups, homophile activists, national governing board, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) may be little known today, but Gallo makes clear how crucial this organization was to the nascent lesbian rights movement. Beginning as a tiny San Francisco social club in 1955, the group soon organized local chapters in New York, Los Angeles and beyond, incubating many figures on the lesbian political and literary scene until the organization waned in the 1970s. In this easy, well-ordered read, Gallo draws on many interviews with pivotal DOB figures, focusing less on juicy gossip than the tensions that drove the group's evolution: lesbian commonality versus race, class and ethnic differences; political activism versus social activities; collaboration with other homophile organizations versus independence; women's rights versus gay rights. Gallo gives considerable space to the history of The Ladder, which began as a mimeographed newsletter and soon became a lively, highly literate forum for lesbians nationally and even internationally. She evokes the tense atmosphere of DOB's beginnings, when being out was nearly synonymous with being outcast, while highlighting the several black leaders of the group and how DOB found allies in San Francisco's religious community. This is a respectful, respectable look at an organization overdue for recognition. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Despite continuing intense racial segregation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the groundbreaking lesbian organization the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) provided opportunities for women to work together and socialize without color bars and with less of the armor of conformity outside the home that the concurrent cold war climate of fear mandated. Against a repressive backdrop of homophobic bar raids, arrests, and firings, the initially secret society of northern California lesbians was founded in 1955 as a social club that in 1956 produced the nation's first lesbian newsletter,The Ladder. So doing, DOB made an all-important outreach that broke through fear and isolation to affirm lesbians throughout America, albeit via protective pseudonyms. DOB and The Ladder also spread through word of mouth, expanding for 20 years into a national sociopolitical effort with regional chapters that paved the way for the lesbian rights movement and helped change history. Gallo's engrossing, detailed history is an essential addition to the popular literature of sociopolitical issues, women's studies, and gay-lesbian history. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (September 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786716347
• ISBN-13: 978-0786716340
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #685,174 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important Addition to LGBT History, June 30, 2007

By	Suzan Cooke (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

Different Daughters is an important addition the library of anyone interested in the development of the lesbian and gay rights movement in the United States.

It covers the often neglected early days of the Lesbian Movement in the pre-Stonewall era from its humble birth in San Francisco and Los Angeles through its development into a broad based movement in the 1970s.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good resource, October 30, 2006

By	Angela "ABrinskele" (California) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is well written and well researched. I was so happy to see it. It is a rare more intimate look into lesbian history in America. These women were amazingly brave and courageous in a time when you could still be arrested simply for being a lesbian. It is a very interesting read. Angela Brinskele, Director of Communications, The Mazer Lesbian Archives

0 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yowza Beans.., December 30, 2006

By	VaneS F "Love You" (I'm Home) - See all my reviews

A look at one of the first lesbian organizations in America. Yowza Beans, I didn't know..Lots of famous people expoused them. Yowza. I liked Sally fielD in "Not Without My Daughter." Neat look at Women's oppression. Who the Heck's "Bilitis." Gonna check it out. Radical like Body Count's "Cop Killer" and Steven Lee Beeber's "The Heebie-Jeebies at cbgb's". A radical account of that (Yo Steve!)wonderful life. Wunderbar as my German motheR might say.