Sketchy History of Lesbian Magazines Worldwide
Researching some of the first historical Lesbian magazines across the world has been so HARD as there is so little data. So this page is in progress and will always be skitchy but a firelight :) Please email me, to kindly offer more info / suggestions regarding possibly the first Lesbian magazines across the world - i would like to praise those couragious lesbian magazine editors. And, please come back to see these updates.
Personally, I am so grateful to London's free lesbian (print) magazine G3 (pre-proliferation of free web blogs) to keep me up-to-date as to where to go and cool lesbian issues - i so sought G3 in every London gay bar. Diva magazine, respect but I was an indie / creative slick chick into the likes of legendary The Face magazine. Cosmopolitan / Hello (euch) style magazines (i.e how lesbian are you quizzes / lame lesbian outings & gossip) repelled me. But I do confess, I was too shy to buy pubically Diva magazine in newsagents. It utterly still sucks that for some countries they are still censoring good gay journalistic articles (excluding e.g. gay porn, gay gossip).
Historically, the internet (and fair play WordPress) has HUGELY opened up an amazing opportunity to publish gay and lesbian magazines without needing a publisher. But I SEE lesbian / gay web censorship across countries which is so glaringly obvious in my web traffic stats i.e which countries I see no / so little web traffic from (I try to be a slick SEO), reflecting gay / lesbian content web censorship.
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Sweeties, seriously, don't you worry - I have no idea (viewing in Google Analytics) who you are apart from city. On my site there is no registration so I am not gathering your email address. I only use GA tracking and, I personally, only look at my web traffic stats to see if it is worth while me paying for the costs of this domain and hosting for this personal project (which is reaping no finacial rewards but is done for L.O.V.E). Though I must confess, I do HUGELY cheer every visitor across the world who has come to the site with the sweet hope, I have maybe have helped / inspired some cool chick :)
For sure, I may have cited some First Lesbian Magazines Worldwide wrong through lack of data. There will have been editors before "Lisa Ben" (1947) who produced and distributed printed lebsian "newsletters" / printed material to be dispersed privately. It is interesting, however, to view these lesbian magazines in a timeline / chronological order and which countries were more liberal.
To be fair, for the history of Lesbian magazine publications, one should consider the history of magazine production. In antiquity, though there may have been published material similar to a magazine earlier, "the magazine" as it is now known, began only after the invention of printing. Perhaps, the earliest magazine appeared in 1663 - the German exciting Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen (1663 – 68; "Edifying Monthly Discussions") by Johann Rist, a theologian and poet of Hamburg. And for Lesbian (and Gay) magazines one must also consider homosexuality laws of the times.
Published in 1924, the Berlin Die Freundin, is attributed as the first Lesbian magazine in the world. Die Freundin was shut down by the Nazis in 1933 during their awful clamp down on the 1871 law, Paragraph 175 - a statute of the German criminal code that banned sexual relations between men but would have covered all homosexuality (the Nazis atrocities included murdering homosexuals, Jews, Romani, political victims / resistance...) The second oldest recorded Lesbian magazine, came, seemingly, thirty years later from America, in 1956 - The Ladder. For sure more research will reveal older or comparative lesbian magazines, across the world, but I hope this page is a starting point for further research.
Where I have been unable to suggest a modern lesbian magazine in a particular country, which mostly likely reflects censorship and possible oppression, here are some online (english written) magazines to check out: afterellen.com | curvemag.com | divamag.co.uk | lesbiannews.com | nonchalantmagazine.com | gaytimes.co.uk and advocate.com. And if you can't access these online magazines, investigate getting a VPN. VPN stands for "virtual private network" which is a service that trys to protect your internet connection and privacy online. VPNs create encrypted data, to try to protect your online identity by hiding your IP address, and allow you to access the web safely and hopefully undetected to polictally and LGBT censored content. I DO NOT support nor condone using a VPN to surf offensive content.
In 2023, homosexuality is still illegal in some countries - even punishable by death!
Moreover, some countries still have anti-homo propaganda laws which "aim at protecting children from information promoting the denial of traditional family values," and ban the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors". The uK can't hold it's head high - with section 28 from 1988 to 2000 (in Scotland) and to 2003 (in England and Wales) a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".
I salute the courageous trailblazing lesbian magazine editors, contributors and publishers across the world.
Ps If you have any info / images regarding the first Lesbian magazines - please do email me.
PPs Check out First Lesbian Clubs and Bars Worldwide or Fancy a queer quiz?
Die Freundin, Germany
1924 – 1933
Germany's First Lesbian Magazine: Die Freundin
Die Freundin was a popular Weimar (German) lesbian magazine and is possibly the first known lesbian magazine in the world.
Part-educational, part-political - Die Freundin also published short stories and novellas by renowned pioneers of the lesbian movement like Ruth Margarete Roellig, Selli Engler and Lotte Hahm and, ads of lesbian nightspots in Berlin, and personal ads for women to meet other lesbians. Like other other Lesbian and Gay magazines, Die Freundin was shut down in 1933 by The Nazis.
First Chief Editor: Aenne Weber
Publisher: Bund für Menschenrecht (League for Human Rights), Berlin
Modern Lesbian Mag: straight-universe.com and l-mag.de
Vice Versa (Newsletter > Magazine), America
1947 – 1948
America's First Lesbian Newsletter: Vice Versa
Between June, 1947, and February, 1948 "Lisa Ben" produced 9 editions of Vice Versa (from 9 - 20 pages). Go girl - Edith Eyde was a young secretary at RKO Studios, Los Angeles, who produced Vice Versa (under pseudonym Lisa Ben) using sheets of carbon paper (10 copies of each edition) on her office typewriter which she distributed privately to her lezza friends in gay bars, who passed them on to their friends.
Vice Versa opened up a forum for lesbians to communicate with each other via readers' letters, personal essays, short fiction and poetry.
Chief Editor: Lisa Ben (pseudonym of Edith Eyde)
Publisher: Lisa Ben, Los Angeles
The Ladder, America
1956 – 1972
America's First Lesbian Magazine: The Ladder
The Ladder was founded by members of the Daughters of Bilitis (the first US lesbian civil and political rights organisation) who wanted to reach out to women who were isolated by assuring them that they were not alone and, to educate them about legal issues. Each issue was typed out on a typewriter, copied by a mimeograph (duplicating machine), hand stapled and mailed out to friends, subscribers and woman they knew who might be interested. Later, The Ladder became available in newsstands across major American cities.
The Ladder included book reviews, news, poetry, short stories, a bibliography of lesbian literature, readers letters with contributions by attorneys, doctors and psychiatrists.
First Chief Editor: Ann Ferguson (pseudonym of Phyllis Lyon)
Publisher: Daughters of Bilitis, San Francisco
Modern Lesbian Mag: curvemag.com
