Daughters of Bilitis by Justin Hall
Page 1:
At the top of the page, the title reads, “Daughters of Bilitis, 1955 Part 1.”
Panel 1: A circular panel with a portrait of two women smiling as they look at the reader. One woman has white hair and the other has black hair and glasses. The woman with white hair says, “Hello! My name is Del Martin and this is my wife Phyllis Lyon. As a couple, we fought for decades for the rights of LGBTQ people, women, racial and ethnic minorities, the poor, and others. We helped begin the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian civil rights organization in the United States, here in San Francisco in 1955.”
The woman in glasses says, “We actually met up in Seattle, but I convinced Del to move back down to San Francisco with me. She drove down on February 14th, 1953, arriving at my place on Castro Street at 11PM.
The circular panel is surrounded symmetrically by two pens and two labryes.
Panel 2: Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon embrace as Del says, “I”m sorry I’m so late! The drive took forever.” Phyllis replies, “Well, you still made it on Valentine’s Day. That’ll make our anniversary easy to remember.”
Narration boxes explain, “In those days, it was very dangerous to be out. The only places to gather were the bars, but there we were in constant fear of the police hauling everyone off to jail for same-sex dancing or touching. We felt isolated, so when we were approached in 1955 by a young Filipina woman named Rose Bamberg with the idea of starting a secret Lesbian Social Club, we jumped at the opportunity! It began as a group of eight women, and our first order of business was to come up with a name.”
Panel 3: A group of four women sit around a red square table with wine and charcuterie as a fifth woman helps herself to some food. The group discusses, “We could call ourselves the Amazons!”
“Too dykey. How about the Daughters of Bilitis?”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
“It’s based on an old French poem about lesbian love, and if anyone questions us, we can say we’re a poetry club!”
Panel 4: Issues of the magazine, “The Ladder” depicted in red and black. Narration boxes explain, “Within a year, there was a split in the DOB, with us white-collar women wanting to become more political and the working-class women wanting to keep the club limited to private social events.
They went and started a new group and we began The Ladder, the first nationally distributed lesbian magazine, to promote our beliefs and create community.
Back in those days, we were considered illegal, immoral, and sick. We could be institutionalized and given shock treatment! So those were the issues we took on.
The Ladder contained contributions by attorneys, psychiatrists, and doctors, as well as poetry and short fiction.”
Panel 5: Del stands next to a desk while Phyllis works on the Ladder. A narration box explains, “Phyllis edited the magazine until 1963, initially under the pseudonym Ann Ferguson. Phyllis says, “I’m killing off Ann in Issue #4! I’m asking lesbians to live open lives, so it’s time to practice what I preach and use my own name.”
Panel 6: Narration explains, “The DOB and the Ladder were lifelines for women across the country. We were also fairly assimilationist, in comparison to the later gay liberation and feminist movements. An illustration of a pair of pants and a dress with a red circle with the abbreviation for, “versus” in between them. Narration explains, “There was an ongoing debate about whether we should wear pants in public!”
Panel 7: A scene in a convention hall with a group of women, Del, and two police officers. A narration box explains, “But that’s what saved us when the vice squad showed up at our convention in 1960, which was the largest lesbian gathering in the country up until then.” The vice squad addresses the group, “OK, ladies, break it up! If we can even call you that…” Del replies, “What’s the problem, officers? We’re just sitting down to lunch.”
Page 2:
At the top of the page, the title reads, “Daughters of Bilitis, 1955 Part 2.”
Panel 1: A portrait of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin looking younger. Phyllis says, “Hello! My name is Phyllis Lyon, and this is my wife Del Martin. We helped found the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian civil rights organization in the US. The DOB finally folded in 1970, in part because of tensions between the more cautious old guard and the newer, more radical members.”
Del continues, “The DOB had served its purpose, helping pioneer lesbian community building and collective action, and it was time for a new generation’s approach. But we never slowed in our own activism. We became increasingly disenchanted with the more conservative male ‘homophile’ groups with which the DOB had been intertwined. The final straw was an event in 1970 when the men didn’t bring a single woman up onstage!”
The circular panel is surrounded symmetrically by two pens and two labryes.
Panel 2: Del Martin sits at a desk reading a letter. Phyllis stands beside the desk. Del says, “Sweetie, what do you think of the letter I wrote to the boys? ‘Goodbye to the male homophile community. Gay is good, but not good enough, so long as it is limited to white males only. As I bid you adieu, I leave you to your own device. Take care of it, stroke it gently, mouth it, fondle it. As the center of your consciousness, it’s really all you have.”
Phyllis replies, “Hahaha! I think you’re really speaking to them in their own language!” A narration box explains, “We were the first lesbian couple to join the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1967.”
Panel 3: A group of women gathering and protesting on a San Francisco street. The women hold signs saying, NOW, Women’s Rights, Human Rights! Equal Pay, Black Lesbian Mother, and Lesbian Feminists. A narration box explains, “This was a scandal because the ‘couples membership’ was only designed to get husbands into the group! They canceled that membership type immediately after. But we continued to fight for lesbian inclusion in the feminist movement, which initially labelled us as the ‘lavendar menace.’” A narration box at the bottom explains, “Eventually, Del became the first open lesbian on the national board of NOW.”
Panel 4: Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon are in profile at either side of the page, looking in one another’s direction. Between them are books entitled, “Battered Wives,” “lesbian woman,” and “Lesbian, Love, and Liberation.” Narration boxes explain, “Over the next several decades, we fought hard for what we believed. We wrote books and helped found many social justice and civil rights groups such as, Council on the Religion and the Homosexual (1964). S.F. Women’s Centers (1970). Lesbian Mothers Union (1971). Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club (1972). Coalition for Justice for Battered Women (1975). National Lesbian Feminist Organization (1978). La Casa de las Madres (1976).
Panel 5: Del Martin and Pyllis Lyon, looking older, hold hands and look at one another lovingly while a person in a suit holding an open book stands behind. In the background, there is an American flag. Narration boxes explain, “When Mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing same-sex marriage licenses in San Francisco in 2004, despite it being illegal at the state and federal level, we were the first couple to be married! Only a few months later, the California Supreme Court voided our marriage.”
Panel 6: Phyllis Lyon advocates as Del Martin stands behind. “Del is 83 years old and I am 79. After being together for over 50 years, it is a terrible blow to have the rights and protections of marriage taken away from us! At our age, we do not have the luxury of time!”
Panel 7: An image of San Francisco City Hall in red with a flag flown at half mast in the foreground. Narration boxes explain, “Luckly, Same-sex marriage was legalized in 2008, and we were once again the first in line at City Hall. Two months after, Del passed away. Flags in San Francisco were flown at half-mast in her honor. Phyllis died in April 2020. But we’ll both be part of S.F. History, the history of LGBTQ rights, and the fight for social justice forever!”
At the bottom of the page in fine print, it reads sfac A project of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art on Market Street Kiosk Poster Series, funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. www.sfartscommission.org. Copyright Justin Hall 2020. www.justinhallawesomecomics.com/pride-posters. Thanks to JEB.