Lesbian Tide

The Lesbian Tide originated in 1971 as the newsletter for the Los Angeles chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), a national lesbian rights organization, and was called the LA DOB Newsletter. The newsletter was run by young members of the DOB and their radical political stance created a rift between the editors and older, less radical members of the DOB. In December 1972, the newspaper formally split from the DOB and, with a change in title to the Lesbian Tide, it became an independent publication with Jeanne Córdova (a former DOB member) as editor.[1][2]

When the Tide expanded its distribution from the Los Angeles region to other U.S. cities, it became the first national lesbian newspaper.[3] Córdova's ambition was to create a newspaper that was as widely circulated as The Advocate, which at the time was targeted towards a gay male audience.[3] The Lesbian Tide struggled financially, however, and at one point its editors published a message to their readers: "WE ARE FLAT BROKE! PLEASE SEND MONEY!"[4] Ultimately, the newspaper ceased publication in 1980.[3]

The Tide's content was not purely lesbian-related; it also appealed to the broader feminist movement of the time and advertised services such as the Alcoholism Center for Women and sex therapy workshops.[5] Wiccan feminist Cerridwen Fallingstar contributed to the magazine in the late 1970s, under her birth name Cheri Lesh.[6]

The Lesbian Tide was the United States' first national lesbian newspaper.[3] Writing for The Advocate, Diane Anderson-Minshall said that Córdova and the newspaper's other writers "helped usher in the era of advocacy journalism ... It wasn't propaganda, but it wasn't quiet, just-the-facts-ma'am reporting either."[7]

In April 1973, the staff of the Lesbian Tide organized and hosted the West Coast Lesbian Conference in Los Angeles.[1] The magazine's writers were also outspoken in their opposition of proposed censorship and obscenity laws in California, which they felt were homophobic and antifeminist.[8]

Lesbian Tide was "the newspaper of record for the lesbian feminist decade"[9] (1970–1980), ranked "highest in the criteria of journalistic excellence,"[10] and notable as the first American magazine to use the word "lesbian" in its title.[11]