DOB ANNIVERSARY

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

The Daughters of Bilitis has completed six years of what we feel to be progressive work in the homophile movement, having started in 1955 with eight women; publishing our first issue of our monthly magazine, THE LADDER, in Octobor, 1956; incorporating in the state of California in 1957; and in 1960 growing from an organization centered in San Francisco to a nation-wide organization with chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey, with a possibility of two more chapters coming up soon.

The purposes of the Daughters of Bilitis are, in short, education of the variant, with particular emphasis on tho psychological, physiological and social aspects, to enable her to understand herself and make an adjustment to society in all its social, civic and economic implications; education of the public; participation in research; and investigation of the penal code.

We feel that much of our progress in the movemont has nocessarily filled the gap which ONE and Mattachine do not particularly cover in their work, namely that of: 1, paying particular attention to the individual homosexual; 2, instigating our own research on the homosexual; and 3, offering the most complete reportorial coverage of the homophile movement itself.

Although Mattachine and ONE have both accomplished much in the broad field of acceptance for the homosexual, we fool the possibilities here are definitely limited if the individual homosexual is lost in the shuffle. For whilo wo are busy trying to teach the public that the homosexuals they see causing a problem are only a small part of the whole homosexual population, this minority is still the representation the public sees. This is in many ways like trying to teach a child to eat liver by telling him how tasty it can be, while all the liver you set in front of him to eat is burnt, pan-fried offerings. He just isn't going to bo very well convinced.

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