From Illness to Action: Conceptions of Homosexuality in The Ladder, 1956-1965.

This article traces the depiction of professional discourse on homosexuality in "The Ladder," the first widely circulated lesbian publication in the United States. The views of medical and psychiatric professionals had an important effect on lesbians' conceptions of themselves and their sexuality in the 1950s and 1960s. In this context, the author notes that "The Ladder" shows evidence of changes in lesbians' acceptance of negative conceptions of homosexuality during the period 1956 to 1965. These changes are in part attributed to the increasing militancy of the homophile movement during the 1960s. The staff and readers of the publication were familiar with psychiatric and medical opinions about homosexuality, and in the early years of publication, they reported on radio shows, public lectures, and panel discussions and reviewed books by psychiatrists and other experts with very little editorializing. Some of the reports focused on whether or not homosexuality was a form of mental illness per se, or whether homosexuals tended to be neurotic or mentally ill because of the social pressures of living in a heterosexual world.