Which Homophile Organization Would You Have Joined?

The Society for Individual Rights or, SIR, was founded in San Francisco in 1964. SIR considered itself it more sub-cultural or "liberationist" rather than the Mattachine Society or Daughters of Bilitis which it viewed as having an "assimilationist" aim in organizing. SIR would go on to become the nations largest homophile organization by membership, published many issues of its glossy "Vector" magazine available around San Francisco, and to collaborate nationally in ECHO and NACHO.

The Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), founded in 1955 by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, was the nations first official lesbian homophile organization and started in San Francisco. The DOB was often referred to as the lesbian equivalent to the Mattachine Society and had similar aims of assimilation and integration into heterosexual society to achieve its goals.
The DOB published a newsletter called The Ladder and educated women on female homosexuality, psychology, and the legal system.

The Phoenix Society for Individual Freedom (PSIF) was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1966. Its founder, Kansas City socialite Drew Shafer, had briefly attempted to start a chapter of One, Inc. in Kansas City before forming this new organization with the support of his parents.
The Phoenix Society founded the Phoenix House, Kansas City's first LGBT center. Shafer's father, a professional printer, donated a printing press to PSIF which they used to print their own newsletter The Phoenix.

Also known as The Cloistered Order of Conclaved Knights of Sophisticracy the Knight of the Clock (KoC) were founded as an interracial homophile organization in Los Angeles sometime between 1949-1951. The KoC was founded by Merton Bird, an African-American accountant, and his partner W. Dorr Legg a white landscape architect. The organization was primarily a social club welcoming all genders and their families and assisted with issues related to interracial couples including employment & housing.

The Janus Society (JS) was founded in 1962 in Philadelphia, PA. Though it started initially as a homophile organization of "respectability" it quickly became one of the nation's most militant homophile organizations under the leadership of Clark Polak, publishing its erotic pictorial Drum, maintaining high visibility in the community by giving interviews on the radio and in newspapers, and by participating in both the Independence Hall Protests and Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In in 1965.

One, Inc. (One) was founded in Los Angeles in 1952 by members of Knights of the Clock and the Mattachine Society, two earlier L.A.-based homophile organizations.
One went on to publish the nations first pro-gay publication "ONE Magazine" in 1953, and later the "homophile studies" journal "ONE Institute Quarterly" (now known as the Journal of Homosexuality). One was highly inclusive of women in the community as well and assisted the Daughters of Bilitis in publishing "The Ladder."

Founded in 1924 by Henry Gerber (from which the Gerber/Hart Library & Archives gets half of its name) in the same year as the word "homophile" was first introduced to the world, the Society for Human Rights is the oldest official LGBTQ organization in the United States. Gerber published two newsletters under the title "Friendship & Freedom" and advocated for "homosexual emancipation" in defiance of the Comstock Act of 1873 which classified any homosexual content as obscenity.

Mattachine Midwest (MM) was founded in Chicago in 1965 by Pearl Hart, Ira Jones, Valerie Taylor, and others. Though it shares a name with the Mattachine Society, MM was completely independent and much less concerned with secrecy. MM was also more inclusive in its membership (recognizing gay, lesbian, and bisexual members) than the Mattachine Society, though both believed in progress for the homosexual community through education, political outreach, and community dialog over radical activity.