2025年标志着人工智能发展史上的一个决定性转折点。根据对OpenRouter平台上超过100万亿token的真实使用数据的详尽实证分析，结合DeepSeek、OpenAI及Air Street Capital等机构的市场情报，我们观察到AI生态系统正在经历从“生成式聊天”向“代理式推理（Agentic Reasoning）”的根本性范式转移。这一年，虽然大模型（LLM）的绝对能力继续攀升，但更深层次的变革发生在用户行为、市场结构以及地缘政治版图中。
市场影响：DeepSeek的存在直接挑战了西方AI公司的商业模式。如果一家中国公司能以几十分之一的成本开发出SOTA（State of the Art）模型并免费开源，那么OpenAI和Anthropic依靠高昂API定价来回收数百亿训练成本的逻辑将面临严峻考验。这迫使闭源厂商必须不断在推理能力上通过“o1”这样的技术飞跃来维持溢价，否则将陷入价格战的泥潭。
能源地缘政治：这使得拥有廉价、稳定能源（如中东的太阳能、美国和中国的核能与水电）的国家在未来AI竞争中占据优势。算力竞争正在演变为能源基础设施的竞争。Air Street Capital指出，这一趋势将导致AI发展的“重资产化”，进一步拉大科技巨头与普通研究机构之间的差距，使得顶级AI研究彻底成为“主权级”的博弈 11。
在介绍巴西占屋运动的文章中，记录了很多次这样的占屋行动。其中大多数行动，是以十九世纪反奴隶制斗争中的重要人物命名的。譬如，Manoel Congo 是 Vale do Paraíba 地区最大奴隶起义运动的领袖；Zumbi dos Palmares 是巴西最大的 Quilombo 的最后一任领袖，而 Quilombo 是由逃亡奴隶组成的社区。
Resisting Evictions: Squatting in Rio de Janeiro as an Alternative for Housing by Juliana Canedo and Julia Caminha 收录于：Fighting for Spaces, Fighting for Our Lives: Squatting Movements Today，2018，ISBN: 9783942885904，原文阅读
Rap Against Dictatorship – Prathet Ku Mee (My Country Has)，2018 反独裁说唱 – 我的国家有什么
[Intro]
[Verse 1: Lady Thanom]
The country where the panther was slain by rifle 黑豹被步枪击毙的国家 The country that preaches moral but crime rate higher than Eiffel 宣扬道德，犯罪率却高于埃菲尔铁塔的国家 The law can’t fight against Dharma or Bible 法律无法与法则或圣经抗衡的国家 Good people never be saluted as idol 好人从不被尊崇为偶像的国家 The country that judges get houses in national park 法官在国家公园里有房产的国家 The country that its capital’s hearth turned into killing fields 首都的心脏变成了屠杀场的国家 The country that leaders eat taxes like a sweet meal 领导们像享用美餐一样吃掉税收的国家 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 2: Gentle Prapas]
The country has no corruption and no checks and balances 没有腐败也没有制衡的国家 The country that a minister’s watches belong to a ghost 部长的手表属于幽灵的国家 The parliament house is soldiers’ play yard 议会大厦是士兵们的游乐场的国家 Charter is written and erased by the army’s boots 宪章被军靴书写又抹去的国家 The country that artists are rebellion 艺术家都是反贼的国家 The country that rebellion obeys the state power 叛乱者服从国家权力的国家 The country that follows leaders like an ant’s nest 像蚁巢一样追随领导者的国家 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 3: HomeBoy Scout]
The country that people in suite never do what they say 穿西装的人从不兑现承诺的国家 The poor have to die ’cause they don’t have 30-baht health care 穷人不得不死，因为他们没有 30 铢的医保 So powerful country that eats panther like sashimi 像吃生鱼片一样吃掉黑豹的如此强大的国家 No accountability, no guilt 没有问责，没有愧疚 The country that murder is easy with money 金钱让谋杀变得轻而易举的国家 The law can stretch more than the arms of Luffy 法律延伸得比路飞手臂还要长的国家 Keep saying “Doing good, doing good” 一直说“干的不错，干的不错” Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 4: Kitti Lamar Wuttoe]
The country that points a gun at your throat 用枪指着你喉咙的国家 Claims to have freedom but have no right to choose 声称拥有自由却没有选择的权利的国家 You can’t say shit even though it’s full of your mouth 嘴里满是话却无法说出的国家 Whatever you do, the leader will see you 无论做什么都会被老大哥看到的国家 The country that assholes own the sovereignty 由混蛋掌控主权的国家 You must choose to either eat the truth or bullets 你必须选择，要么吃真相，要么吃子弹 Country that big fish eat little by squads of motherfuckers 成群混蛋大鱼吃小鱼的国家 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 5: Kra-Ting Clan]
The country that government is untouchable 政府不可触碰的国家 The police use law to threaten people 警察用法律来威胁人民的国家 Though you’re enlightened, you have to pretend to sleep 虽然你已经觉醒，却必须假装睡着的国家 Even you don’t wanna live, they will force you to live 即使你不想活，他们也会强迫你活下去 The country that people read less, especially the leader 人们尤其是领导都不读书的国家 The country that asks you to stay quiet or stay in jail 要求你保持沉默或者进监狱的国家 The country that corruption’s always safe for the rich 腐败对富人来说总是安全的国家 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 6: G Saiyud]
The country that politics is split in two sides 政治被分为两派的国家 The country that citizens are divided into two 公民被分成两派的国家 The country that people get killed in both sides 双方都有人被杀的国家 The country that both sides fear the army 双方都害怕军队的国家 Four years already motherfucker, still no election 四年了，混蛋，仍然没有选举的国家 Free country? Fuck it, don’t tell me I can choose 自由的国家？去他妈的，别告诉我我可以选择 Even the PM is still picked by the army 连总理都是由军队挑选的的国家 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 7: Samak Da Kreator]
The country that national budget is unlimited 国家预算无限的国家 The bizarre country with money hidden in bureaucrats’ house 钱藏在官僚的家里的奇怪国家 The country that leader is kinda annoying 领导人很烦的国家 The country that fucks the rule with machine gun 用机枪践踏规则的国家 People live happily but still in the cave 人们快乐地生活，但仍在洞穴中 Four years under the top-boots, nobody works in the house 四年在高筒靴下，家里没有人工作 The tedious country that goes without saying 不言而喻，这是个乏味的国家 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 8: Snoop Dusit]
The country that has everything except common sense 除了常识什么都有的国家 Driven by money like a magical spell 被金钱驱动，像魔法咒语一样 Time goes by, it becomes a diamond of evil 时间流逝，它变成了邪恶的钻石 Worshiped by monkeys like a monolith of selfishness 被强烈自我中心的猴子们崇拜 Brainlessly drunk in ignorance that can’t response shits 在无知中愚蠢地醉倒，无法回应任何事情 Ignore justice, let the beasts keep arrogant 无视正义，野兽们继续傲慢着 Rule everything by darkness and fear 用黑暗和恐惧统治一切 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Interlude]
[Verse 9: Thanin Scott]
The good and fucking everlasting country 美好而它妈的永恒的国家 The glorious gov abuses people, being hated worldwide 辉煌的政府虐待人民，受到全世界的憎恶 The country is sanctioned, people suffer everywhere 受到制裁，人民到处受苦的国家 The country that evil disguise in coup and people are suppressed 邪恶伪装成政变，人民被压制的国家 That country that fires protesters at night 在夜间向抗议者开火的国家 The lawless country and the fucked up city 无法无天的国家和糟糕的城市 Keep making babies and eating tax 继续生孩子和吃税收的国家 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Verse 10: Sa-lang Shady]
The country that can use law as an excuse like a magic 像魔法一样用法律作为借口的国家 People dress hope as shirt and dress poverty as shorts 人们把希望穿成衬衫，把贫穷穿成短裤的国家 The country that close its ear, never hear people in the gap 对缝隙中的人民闭耳不闻的国家 The country that everyone keeps talking and listening 每个人一直在谈论和倾听的国家 People only good at taking exams and just want to be rich 人们擅长考试，只想变得富有的国家 The country that makes fakes promises like loading bullets, create a regime and told use to love it 像装填子弹一样做出虚假承诺，创造政权要我们去热爱它的国家 The country that chair is the answer 主席的位子就是答案的国家 You will see if you’re good at counting dates 你会看到你是否擅长计算日期 Which is my country 这就是我的国 Which is my country 这就是我的国
[Ending Notes]
Polarizing the people is the authoritarian’s ultimate weapon 两极化民众是专制者的终极武器 When this happens, the people’s power will be taken away 当这种情况发生时，人民的权力将被剥夺 In memory of all victims from all state crimes 为了纪念所有国家犯罪的所有受害者
1919年出版的诗集《风景与幻景》（Vues et Visions）由克劳德创作，插图则由苏珊娜绘制。同时，她还在1930年出版的她俩作为伴侣的首部合作作品《未实现的自白》（Aveux non Avenus，即《否认：或取消的自白》）中的照片拼贴画上署名。这本书收录了克劳德的格言、插曲和回忆，由诗歌和散文片段组成，并配有摄影拼贴画。文字与视觉元素共同强化了艺术家对意识、性和身份的不断拓展的认知，她们认为这些是相互关联又支离破碎同时也非常易变的。1923年，克劳德从文学领域拓展到戏剧、摄影和写作领域，与美国侨民、异国情调的舞者比阿特丽斯·万格一起成为了神秘艺术之友联盟的创始成员之一，比阿特丽斯·万格是诗人、超现实主义创始人安德烈·布勒东的朋友。5
法国共产党察觉到威胁后，通过成立自己的组织做出回应。这两个团体继续发生冲突，原因在于共产党不信任知识分子和艺术家，而超现实主义者拒绝将革命视为狭隘的阶级斗争，也拒绝在唯物主义的革命观中定位梦境和无意识的作用。1934年，克劳德发表了她的第一篇马克思主义论文《巴黎赌局已开》（Bets are on）。她引用《马尔多罗之歌》The Song of Maldoror的作者洛特雷阿蒙伯爵Comte de Lautréamont和兰波Rimbaud的诗歌，热情地捍卫了诗歌在面对“意识形态一致性（即对诗歌本身的否定）”时对自主性的需求。8
最初，“女儿们”在公开与保密之间小心翼翼地保持平衡。她们最早开展的项目之一就是在客厅里就女同性恋者关心的问题进行一系列讨论。她们把这些以咖啡为媒介的非正式聚会称为“闲聊咖啡会”。参加者不必表明自己是同性恋者； 该组织的成员资格向所有有兴趣进一步了解同性恋“问题”的女性开放。甚至该组织所选择的名称也为其提供了避免意外曝光的掩护。通过采用一首晦涩的19世纪情诗（《比莉蒂斯之歌》Songs of Bilitis）的标题，据说这首诗是由传说中希腊教师兼诗人萨福的一位虚构女情人所作，她们可以向那些“知情”的女性表明自己是一个同性恋团体，同时又能避免引起整个社会不必要的关注。
《阶梯》杂志封面和内容的变化，体现了女同性恋运动的演变。该杂志最初以女性的钢笔画为特色，但在1964年，在芭芭拉·吉廷斯（Barbara Gittings）担任编辑期间，《阶梯》开始展示凯·拉胡森拍摄的女同性恋照片。吉廷斯还在杂志封面用粗体字添加了“女同性恋评论”字样。其内容始终以女同性恋为中心，但又不拘一格。除了提供不断发展的同性恋解放运动的信息外，《阶梯》还向欣赏的读者群体推介女诗人和作家，从玛丽昂·齐默·布拉德利（Marion Zimmer Bradley）和珍妮特·霍华德·福斯特（Jeanette Howard Foster）再到瓦莱丽·泰勒（Valerie Taylor）和丽塔·梅·布朗（Rita Mae Brown）。1957年，《阶梯》推出的创新之一是由长期撰稿人兼最后一任编辑吉恩·达蒙（Gene Damon6，即芭芭拉·格里尔撰写的每月对所有女同性恋主题出版物的评论“女同性恋文献”（“Lesbiana”）。另一个创新是读者来信专栏，在接下来的14年里，该专栏刊登来自全球各地的信件。在该杂志早期的内容中，有两篇篇幅较长、富有思想性的文章，署名“L. H. N.，纽约，纽约”，在杂志创刊几个月内就寄给了编辑。这两封信对新团体的事业表示祝贺，并全文刊登； 几年之内，其作者、剧作家洛林·汉斯贝里（她在签名中加上了夫姓内米罗夫）凭借她那部关于美国种族关系的犀利戏剧《阳光下的葡萄干》（A Raisin in the Sun）（1959 年）引起了轰动。
在十年时间里，战略分歧以及地域差异影响了“女儿会”（Daughters）的组织决策。1965年，在东海岸，吉廷斯、拉胡森和埃克斯坦是少数参与早期同性恋公开抗议活动的女同性恋者。在接下来的十年里，她们在华盛顿、纽约和费城的联邦大楼前进行抗议，挑战政府政策以及媒体所热衷的对同性恋者的模糊刻板印象。在旧金山，马丁（Martin）和莱昂（Lyon），以及塔尔马奇（Talmadge）、邦纳和沃克认识到消除同性恋“罪恶”观念的重要性，并将工作重点放在宗教领袖身上。1965年，他们与泰德·麦尔文纳（Ted McIlvenna）合作，麦尔文纳是一位富有同情心的牧师，他在该市贫困的田德隆区（Tenderloin）帮助离家出走的青少年，他们共同创立了宗教与同性恋委员会（Council on Religion and the Homosexual）。他们在主流教会中结交的盟友为推动同性恋权利立法提供了支持。在芝加哥，像芭芭拉·麦克莱恩（Barbara McLain）这样的“女儿会”领导人与马特辛社的活动家合作，呼吁人们关注困扰他们社区的骚扰和暴力问题。这一步骤促成了美国最早的警察暴力监督网络之一的成立，该网络至今仍在运作。
6. Gene Damon：美国作家和出版商。在编辑了女同性恋民权组织 Daughters of Bilitis 出版的 《The Ladder》杂志后，她与他人共同创立了一家女同性恋图书出版公司 Naiad Press，该公司经过宣传后成为世界上最大的女同性恋书籍出版商。她建立了重要的女同性恋文学集，并编目并附有主题的详细索引。
“We were fi ghting the church, the couch, and the courts.”
These are the words of activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. They are describing a time, fifty years ago, when a handful of lesbians challenged the widespread demonization of female same sex love by American religious leaders, psychiatrists, psychologists, lawyers, and lawmakers. The two women still insist that they did not intend to start a revolution. In September 1955, when Martin and Lyon accepted an invitation to meet with three other lesbian couples in San Francisco, the main topic of conversation was forming a social club for “gay girls.” Out of their discussions grew the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), the first national lesbian rights organization in the United States.
The story of DOB provides a unique example of women’s activism during a time in contemporary U.S. history often portrayed by historians as socially and politically quiescent. DOB’s particular style of mobilizing lesbians—what historian Marc Stein has termed “militantly respectable” organizing— provides examples of strategies that have been effective in repressive political climates.
To fully understand DOB, we must place it in its cold war context. As historian Ruth Rosen has written, “the fifties were an age of cognitive dissonance: millions of people believed in ideals that poorly described their own experience. The decade quarantined dissent and oozed conformity” (1). Although Alfred Kinsey’s postwar studies of human sexuality showed the prevalence of homosexual attraction for “normal” American women and men, gay men and lesbians were dismissed from federal employment, fi red from private industry, and deprived of custody of their children, just because they desired the “wrong” sex. They were regularly harassed, and often arrested, by local vice squads at gay-friendly bars and restaurants, then humiliated when their names and addresses were printed on the front pages of hometown newspapers. “Homosexual” was synonymous with “pervert” and “subversive.”
Initially, the Daughters performed a careful balancing act between visibility and secrecy. One of their first programs was a series of living- room discussions on issues of interest to lesbians. They called the informal coffee- fueled gatherings “Gab ‘n’ Javas.” A woman did not have to identify herself as gay to attend; membership was open to all females interested in learning more about the “problems” of homosexuality. Even the name the Daughters chose for the group provided shelter from unwitting exposure. By using the title of an obscure nineteenth century erotic poem (Songs of Bilitis), supposedly written by a mythical female lover of the legendary Greek teacher and poet Sappho, they could signal that they were a gay group to those women who were “in the know” yet shield themselves from unwanted attention from society at large.
They also quickly established themselves as a non-profit organization, with by-laws, letterhead, and membership cards. The external symbols of corporate credibility helped them see themselves, as well as be seen by others, as a legitimate group. They opened their first office at 693 Mission Street in San Francisco in January 1957, sharing space with the Mattachine Society, an organization of gay men. The few women who were determined to find some sort of community sought out DOB in the Bay area, or found the New York office on lower Broadway. Kay Tobin (Lahusen) remembers, “I was so nervous! I mean, here I was, going to this lesbian group—and they had an office. I was so intimidated . . . until I got there” (2). What she found was a cluttered, claustrophobic space in which half a dozen women had gathered, but it was enough to convince her to join. For the next two decades, the tiny group of Daughters functioned like a highly structured women’s club and sometimes felt like a dysfunctional family. From 1958 to 1970, it was a national organization with local chapters, biennial conferences, and a membership averaging 200 women annually. In addition to San Francisco, there were active DOB groups in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston. Other U.S. cities—such as Dallas, Detroit, and New Orleans—as well as Melbourne, Australia, also had chapters for a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Which lesbians were Daughters? While the organization’s membership was overwhelmingly white, it was not exclusively so. There were two women of color—a Filipina and a Chicana— among the initial organizers. A few African American women assumed positions of leadership within the organization at both national and chapter levels, such as Cleo Glenn (Bonner) and Pat Walker in San Francisco, and Ernestine Eckstein in New York. Bonner became the president of the national organization and led it for three years in the mid-1960s, the first woman of color to head a national gay rights group. Cuban-born Ada Bello was a leader in DOB’s Philadelphia Chapter in the late 1960s and Jeanne Córdova, of Irish and Mexican descent, helped revitalize the Los Angeles Chapter in the early 1970s. Artists like Nancie Gee and Alice Kobayashi contributed to DOB’s magazine, The Ladder. “Unlike many other groups in the 1950s,” remembers early member Billye Talmadge, “there were no color bars in DOB.” She goes on to note that “there were not just African-Americans, but Asians, Latinas . . . the driving force was that we were gay women” (3).
According to an early DOB membership survey, the first administered by lesbian activists themselves rather than professional researchers, a majority of the women in the organization were teachers. Some of them held professional positions in business or were employed as clerical workers, others had factory jobs or were unemployed. Most of the women who joined DOB in the late 1950s had gone to college; only a handful had served in the military in World War II or afterward. Most had at least some sexual or emotional involvement with the opposite sex. There was a fair amount of geographic mobility as well, and DOB members often moved to a different part of the country for work or a new love interest. Sometimes the result would be good for the Daughters personally and politically—when “Sandy” (Helen Sandoz) met and fell in love with “Sten” (Stella Rush) in 1957, she moved to Los Angeles so they could be together. The next year, they founded the Los Angeles Chapter.
Creating Lesbian Identity and Visibility
The Ladder may be one of the things that the Daughters is best known for. The same compact size as many academic or literary journals, the 25- to 60-page black-and-white magazine was the first ongoing monthly publication in the United States created by lesbians for lesbians. From 1956 to 1972, it was handed around among colleagues at work, at home, and at the bars; unfortunately for the organization’s meager treasury, most readers “borrowed” rather than paid for their copies. Repeatedly, lesbians who are now in their late 50s, 60s, and 70s describe their amazed reaction to finding a copy at a friend’s home or at one of the dozen newsstands and “alternative” bookstores around the country that sold it. “One day Audre (Lorde) and I stopped at our favorite newsstand on 8th Street in the Village and saw this little magazine. For lesbians! And there was an article in it by Iris Murdoch. We were thrilled,” remembers Blanche Wiesen Cook (4). For historian Cook, the groundbreaking biographer of Eleanor Roosevelt, and writer Lorde, the first black lesbian to be named New York’s Poet Laureate (1991), the discovery of The Ladder was further enhanced by its inclusion of the acclaimed British novelist. Iris Murdoch was renowned for her intellectually rigorous, provocative writings on moral and ethical issues in the 1950s and 1960s.
The changing cover and content of The Ladder illustrate the lesbian movement’s evolution. The magazine initially featured pen-and-ink drawings of women but in 1964, under the editorship of Barbara Gittings, The Ladder began showcasing photos of lesbians taken by Kay Lahusen. Gittings also added the words “A Lesbian Review” in boldface type to the front of the magazine. The content was always lesbian-centered yet eclectic. In addition to providing information on the growing homophile movement, The Ladder promoted female poets and writers—from Marion Zimmer Bradley and Jeanette Howard Foster to Valerie Taylor and Rita Mae Brown—to an appreciative audience. A monthly review of any and all lesbian-themed publications, “Lesbiana,” written by longtime Ladder contributor and final editor Gene Damon (Barbara Grier) was one of the innovations The Ladder introduced in 1957. Another was the letters to the editor column, which featured correspondence from around the globe for the next fourteen years. Among the early riches to be found in its pages are two long, thoughtful pieces, signed “L. H. N., New York, New York,” which were sent to the editor within a few months of the magazine’s debut. Offering congratulations for the new group’s undertakings, the letters were printed in their entirety; within a few years, their author, playwright Lorraine Hansberry (who added her married name, Nemiroff, to her signature), would cause a sensation with her searing drama on American race relations, A Raisin in the Sun (1959).
DOB leaders also used their publication to recruit research participants. Florence Conrad (Jaffy), DOB’s longtime Research Director, believed passionately that the best way to change public perceptions of lesbians was by changing what was written about them in the established medical and scientifi c literature. DOB, Jaffy argued, could help researchers find healthy, functioning, noninstitutionalized lesbian subjects for study. By the mid-1960s, however, some DOB leaders such as Gittings rejected the suggestion that the organization rely on anyone but its members in defining the mental health of gay women and men. “Emphasis on research has had its day,” she headlined in The Ladder. It was time to take action (5).
Within ten years’ time, strategic disagreements as well as geographic differences influenced the Daughters’ organizing decisions. In 1965, on the East Coast, Gittings, Lahusen, and Eckstein were three of a handful of lesbians who joined early gay public protests. They picketed federal buildings in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia for the rest of the decade, challenging government policies as well as the shadowy stereotypes of gay people so popular with the media. In San Francisco, Martin and Lyon, along with Talmadge, Bonner, and Walker, recognized the importance of exorcizing the “sin” of homosexuality and focused on religious leaders. Working with Ted McIlvenna, a sympathetic minister who aided runaway youth in the city’s poor Tenderloin district, they helped create the Council on Religion and the Homosexual in 1965. The allies they made within mainstream churches helped develop support for gay rights legislation. In Chicago, DOB leaders like Barbara McLain worked with Mattachine activists to call attention to the harassment and violence that plagued their communities. This step led to the founding of one of the first police brutality monitoring networks in the country, which continues to operate today.
Feminism and the Fall of The Ladder
The interplay between “the personal” and “the political” in DOB’s programs and goals is evident from the organization’s beginnings. Women who came to the get-togethers mainly to meet a new girlfriend often got more than they bargained for. For example, the “Gab ‘n’ Java” gatherings provided sites where women could talk about issues they had never before dared to express openly. As one woman’s story after another was shared and validated within the safety of the small group, DOB members realized that it was not just their own sense of self-esteem but society’s attitudes and policies that needed to change. Their magazine also helped DOB members defi ne their awareness of gender differences between lesbians and gay men, and stress their solidarity with heterosexual women on the need for gender equality. The Ladder was one of the few national publications where essays critiquing women’s second-class status in society could be found in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and it regularly printed poetry, short stories, and reviews of fiction and nonfiction with a decidedly feminist slant.
However, the appeal of women’s liberation to some of DOB’s most prominent activists in the late 1960s, and their desire to utilize respected resources like The Ladder to promote feminism, caused a split within DOB’s leadership that by 1970 was irreparable. That summer, one month before DOB’s biennial convention, national president Rita Laporte took the magazine’s mailing list and production materials from San Francisco to her new home in Nevada so that she and editor Barbara Grier could publish The Ladder privately.
DOB’s longtime leaders, including Lyon, Martin, Gittings, and Lahusen, were infuriated by this action. The loss of The Ladder caused a crisis of faith and friendship that has yet to be resolved. What Grier describes today as an effort to save a valuable publication from the death throes of a weak and ineffectual organization, other former Daughters insist was nothing less than theft. They assert that Grier and Laporte caused DOB’s demise by “stealing” their prized publication, which was the organization’s most valuable asset. Grier argues that The Ladder by 1970 was increasingly functioning as its own entity. As editor, she wanted the freedom to expand its feminist orientation and build on its legacy as the only established American lesbian magazine with a significant distribution network and publishing history.
Unfortunately, The Ladder could not survive without the organization that had given it life. Over the next two years, Grier recruited up-and-coming as well as well-known feminist writers and expanded the magazine’s circulation to nearly 4,000. The increase in readership, however, caused financial problems. “The simple truth is that we couldn’t afford to keep printing and mailing a high-quality magazine without accepting ads our readers wouldn’t want,” she said in 2003 to explain why she stopped publishing The Ladder in 1972 (6). With her partner Donna McBride and two other women, Grier then founded Naiad Press, a successful women’s publishing company. She used The Ladder’s mailing list to announce the new enterprise.
Through the 1970s DOB continued to provide a home for lesbians, at least on the local level. Chapters were granted autonomy and the right to continue organizing under the “Daughters of Bilitis” name in 1970 and many continued their work for the rest of the decade. The Boston Chapter was active until 1995. Then, as in 1955, DOB was many things to many women. It was where a lesbian could go to meet a new girlfriend, begin to heal a broken heart, or find validation for her life. It was a circle of friends to share good times and bad, a network of peer counselors who offered support and guidance, a resource center for questions about homosexuality. It was an arena for social action. The Daughters’ mix of personal support and political debate brought women to activism who never would have defined themselves as agents for change.
Despite the dominant culture of conformity so characteristic of the cold war years, the Daughters educated and organized lesbians, advocating for their inclusion in U.S. society. They adapted the postwar rhetoric of integration and equality to challenge their society not only on its homophobia but on its sexism.
Endnotes
1. Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How The Modern Women’s Movement
Changed America (New York: Viking, 2000), 8.
2. Kay Lahusen, interview with author, April 23, 2002.
3. Billye Talmadge, interview with author, March 30, 2002.
4. Blanche Wiesen Cook, discussion with author, September 5, 2004.
5. The Ladder 10 (October 1965): 10.
6. Barbara Grier, interview with author, December 29, 2003.
Resources
Primary Sources
Bullough, Vern L., ed. Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2002.
Córdova, Jeanne. Kicking the Habit: A Lesbian Nun Story; An Autobiographical Novel. Hollywood, CA: Multiple Dimensions, 1990.
Marcus, Eric. Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights. New York: Perennial, 2002.
Martin, Del and Phyllis Lyon. Lesbian/Woman. 20th anniversary ed. Volcano, CA: Volcano Press, 1991, 1972.
Tobin, Kay and Randy Wicker. The Gay Crusaders. New York: Paperback Library, 1972.
Secondary Sources
Boyd, Nan Alamilla. Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Capsuto, Steven. Alternate Channels: The Uncensored Story of Gay and Lesbian Images on Radio and Television, 1930s to the Present. New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.
Cook, Blanche Wiesen. “Female Support Networks and Political Activism: Lillian Wald, Crystal Eastman, Emma Goldman.” Chrysalis 3 (Autumn 1977): 43-61.
D’Emilio, John. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Duberman, Martin. Stonewall. New York: Dutton, 1993.
Faderman, Lillian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth Century America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Freedman, Estelle B. “Boston Marriage, Free Love, and Fictive Kin: Historical Alternatives to Mainstream Marriage.” OAH Newsletter 32 (August 2004): 1.———. No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and the Future of Women.
New York: Ballantine Books, 2002.
Katz, Jonathan Ned. Gay American History: Lesbians & Gay Men in the U.S.A.: A Documentary History. Rev. ed. New York: Meridian, 1992, 1976.
Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky and Madeline D. Davis. Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community. Reprint. New York: Penguin Books, 1994, 1993.
May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York: Basic Books, 1988.
Meeker, Martin. “Behind the Mask of Respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and Male Homophile Practice, 1950s and 1960s.”
Journal of the History of Sexuality 10 (January 2001): 78-116.
Rosen, Ruth. The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America. New York: Viking, 2000.
Rupp, Leila J. A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Soares, Manuela, “The Purloined Ladder: Its Place in Lesbian History.”
Journal of Homosexuality 34 (Winter 1998): 27-49.
Stein, Marc. City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-1972. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Videos
Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community. VHS. Directed by Greta Schiller and produced by Robert Rosenberg and John Scagliotti. New York: Cinema Guild, 1985.
Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives. VHS. Directed by Aerlyn Weissman and Lynne Fernie. Montréal: National Film Board of Canada, 1992.
Last Call at Maud’s. VHS. Directed by Paris Poirier and produced by The Maud’s Project. New York: Water Bearer Films, 1993.
No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. DVD. Directed and produced by Joan E. Biren (JEB) and produced by Dee Mosbacher. San Francisco: Frameline, 2003.
Word Is Out. VHS. Directed by Andrew Brown and produced by Peter Adair and Nancy Adair. New York: New Yorker Video, 1991, 1978.
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