The Ladder: A Lesbian Review, vol. 9 no. 2

The Daughters of Bilitis, the most important organization for lesbians in the United States in the 1950s and 60s, published The Ladder. Early issues featured drawings and, later, photos of readers shown from behind to protect the models’ identities. In 1963 the activists Barbara Gittings and her partner, photographer Kay Tobin Lahusen, took over as the editors and added the subtitle “A Lesbian Review.” Under their leadership, the publication became the first to disclose the faces and names of lesbian models. Ger van Braam, pictured on this Ladder cover from 1964, was a lesbian living in Indonesia and the first person willing to risk being featured.