Learn more about this pioneers that you probably won’t find in your history textbooks
BY DAISY DEMPSEY, IMAGE BY BILERICO PROJECT VIA FLICKR, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
So much of what built the LGBTQIA+ community happened underground. Hidden and unrecorded. What might seem ordinary today was once radically subversive, shaped by individuals whose courage helped carve out their place in society. Here are a few lesbian trailblazers whose names you should know.Â
Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin were foundational figures in US lesbian and wider LGBTQIA+ liberation. After meeting in Seattle and settling in San Francisco, they co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) in 1955, the first formal lesbian organisation in the United States.
DOB offered community, something radical at a time when lesbian identity was criminalised and heavily stigmatised. What began as a social lifeline quickly became a political force, challenging prejudice and building solidarity. They also launched The Ladder, one of the first national lesbian publications, giving visibility to lives the mainstream refused to acknowledge.
Their activism continued across decades through work with organisations including the National Organization for Women, and their relationship itself became symbolic of endurance and resistance. After more than 50 years together, they were among the first same-sex couples to marry in San Francisco in 2004, and again legally in 2008.
Barbara Gittings & Kay Lahusen
Barbara Gittings and Kay Lahusen helped shift LGBTQIA+ activism from cautious visibility to unapologetic protest. Gittings became a leading voice in the homophile movement and Editor-in-chief of The Ladder, pushing it towards bold political engagement.
Lahusen, the first known lesbian photojournalist in the US, documented early queer activism from the inside, preserving a visual history of a movement often forced into the shadows. Together, they helped organise some of the earliest public gay rights demonstrations in America, bridging the pre and post Stonewall eras.
The pair were together for 46 years until Gitting’s death aged 74 in 2007. Lahusen passed away in 2021 aged 91.
Dr Joyce Hunter
Born in 1939 in Staten Island to a Black father and an Orthodox Jewish mother, Joyce Hunter spent much of her childhood in orphanages after being separated from her family. After a traumatic childhood and early struggles with identity and survival, she became involved in lesbian feminist organising in the 1970s.
A violent anti-gay attack in 1975 left her seriously injured but redirected her path toward youth advocacy. She co-founded the Hetrick-Martin Institute and later helped establish the Harvey Milk High School in New York, pioneering safe educational spaces for LGBTQIA+ young people. Her work has been defined by one mission, ensuring queer youth have the safety and dignity she was denied.
Edythe Eyde
Edythe Eyde, better known by her penname Lisa Ben (an anagram of “lesbian”), created what is widely considered the first lesbian “zine”, Vice Versa, in 1947. Produced on a typewriter and shared discreetly by hand, it featured stories, poems, and commentary that quietly affirmed lesbian existence in an era of near-total silence.
Working in Hollywood as a secretary, she also performed parody songs in queer clubs, weaving humour and coded visibility into underground culture. Though she lived much of her life privately, her publishing became a blueprint for queer media.
Jean O’Leary
Jean O’Leary was a key organiser in bringing lesbian and gay issues into mainstream US politics. After leaving a convent in the late 1960s and embracing her sexuality, she became a prominent figure in early gay liberation. She co-founded Lesbian Feminist Liberation in 1972 and later served as co-executive director of the National Gay Task Force.
One of her most significant achievements was organizing the first delegation of lesbian and gay activists to meet White House officials in 1977, a landmark moment in LGBTQIA+ political recognition. She also co-founded National Coming Out Day in 1988, cementing her legacy in visibility politics. She was undeniably central to the movement’s evolution into national political discourse.
Her activism was complex and at times controversial. At a 1973 rally she publicly criticised drag performance, leading to a heated confrontation with Sylvia Rivera, an episode she later reflected on with regret as her views evolved.
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