tangents

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by dal mcintire

D.O.B. CONVENTION

Time was when public conventions of homosexuals were unlikely, to say the least. The first, in Los Angeles in 1952, was held with no fanfare and no signs posted.

A convention of Lesbians still is news. The first in America, in San Francisco's colorful Whitcomb Hotel the last weekend in May, was a smashing success-punctuated by a dramatic lawyers' debate on the rights of gay bars (duly reported in the Frisco papers). The first National Convention of the Daughters of Bilitis topped ONE and Mattachine convention-attendance with about 110 persons at the luncheon and 125 at the banquet. Delegates and visitors came from Seattle, Winnipeg, Kansas City, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, London and about 40 from Los Angeles.

The Daughters, or D.O.B., the only exclusive and avowed Lesbian group, so far as we know, began with eight San Francisco women in 1955, who hoped to turn a group of "scared and guilt-ridden girls into solid citizens.' The name (pronounced bi-leet-us) came from Pierre Louys' Songs of Bilitis. Their magazine, The Ladder, first appeared (mimeoed) in October, 1956. Chapters were added in Los Angeles and New York, drawing many girls that mixed groups such as ONE couldn't

one

seem to attract. The group placed always a special emphasis on the social responsibility of the Lesbian.

The Convention's public program began Saturday morning (after a crowded reception the night before) in a spacious penthouse atop the hotel, with breathtaking, fullround view of the city. The group was about three-quarters female. After brief welcoming talks by national and local presiding officers, Patty Patterson presented a lively account of a study prepared by the D.O.B. Research Dept., contrasting the social stability, educational level, etc., of groups of male and female homosexuals. This will shortly be published both in The Ladder and in Homophile Studies.

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Next, Mrs. Bernice Engle of the Langley Porter Clinic (which prepared the excellent Calif. State Sex Deviation Reports, 1950, et. seq.,) chaired the most stimulating panel discussion on homoseuality we've ever heard. The question, "Why the Lesbian?" was posed to panelists Dr. Frank A. Beach of Univ. Calif. Psych. Dept. at Berkeley, co-author of the important book, Patterns of Sexual Behavior; Patricia Lyon, ethnologist and archaeologist, Univ. Calif. at Santa Barbara; Dr. Norman Reider, former head of the Psychiatric Clinic at Mt. Zion Hospital; and

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