National March! On Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights: Official Souvenir Program Page: 10
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'56. A 1954 attempt to open a NYC office spun off The League,
active until just before the NY Mattachine Area Council began in
Fall '55.
Mattachine never regained its early spirit or numbers, but with
national membership near 100 it opened new fields in Detroit, Den-
ver, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia and Miami. In 1957 the head-
quarters moved north where a society magazine had already begun.
After long feuding with NY and Denver, San Francisco expelled the
chapters. Some changed their names; others found new tasks.
In Sept '55, eight San Francisco women started Daughters of
Bilitis, at the urging of a Philippina lesbian. They took the name
from the poem, Songs of Bilitis, and soon worked closely with the
now less cosexual ONE and Mattachine. DOB was the most conserva-
tive of the "Big Three" until the 60's when they began to evolve
toward radical feminism.
Other groups were brief: a mostly lesbian gay AA chapter and a
gay Church, both L.A., 1956, etc. The movement gained impetus
from anti-gay drives in England, Miami, Santa Monica and elsewhere
(Favorable church reports in England led to law reform in 1967).
THE NEW HOMOPHILE MOVEMENT
San Francisco launched several new groups after 1962: the League
for Civil Education with two feisty newspapers: the Tavern Guild, a
first in gay business organization; the Society for Individual Rights,
first group having a clear program to build the gay community; the
Council on Religion and the Homosexual, opening doors to main-
line churches and seeding Councils in L.A., Philadelphia, Dallas and
Montreal; Citizen's Alert, and inter-minority police watch; Vanguard
for street gays, a 1966 preview of post-Stonewall Gay Lib groups;
and the stormy National or North American Conference of Homo-
phile Organizations, which met in Kansas City, San Francisco, Wash-
ington and Chicago, trying to steer a course for the movement.
Dr. Franklin Kameny and Barbara Gittings unrelentingly fought
military and civil service discrimination. NY Mattachine bar sit-ins
challenged state regulations against serving known gays. We began
winning some legal cases. Eastern gays began picketing the White
House and Independence Hall annually.
The East-West rift in the National Conference was expressed by a
near-unamious 1967 Western Regional resolution:
"Since the homosexual community is composed of all types of persons,
we feel that the movement ought not be constricted by any limiting con-
cept of public image. The homosexual has no image to protect ... we
assert the right of individuals to be what they are and do what they wish
as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others.10
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D.C. Media Committee. National March! On Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights: Official Souvenir Program, pamphlet, 1979; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc276226/m1/12/: accessed June 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.