Homophile Movement Magazines ONE< Inc., One Magazine, Mattachine Review, Tangent

1. SAGE Presentations
Homophile Movement
Part 4 of a 5 Part Series
Presented By
Shoulders to Stand On
A Program of the Out Alliance

2. SAGE Presentation
Homophile Movement Part 4
One Inc.
Parting of the Ways
One Magazine
A Second Parting of the Ways

3. • November 11, 1950 first meeting of the Mattachine Society in Los
Angeles, under the name Society of Fools
• April 1951 changed name to Mattachine Society operated in secrecy
• Spring, 1952 Mattachine member Dale Jennings arrested on charges of
soliciting an officer to commit a homosexual act.
Trial began June 23, 1952 Jennings admitted
he was a homosexual but not guilty of the charges.
Jury voted 11–1 for acquittal on basis of police intimidation,
harassment, and entrapment of homosexuals
Case was dismissed.
Mattachine Society

4. • Result trial brought a lot of attention to the Mattachine Society, increasing awareness of the Gay
Rights Movement as a whole as well as increasing the organization's membership
• Different Views On How Best to Fight for Equal Rights for Homosexuals
• Harry Hay, the primary founder of the society, believed “gays were a unique
especially talented group who had been a primary part of tribal societies, needed to
come together and reclaim those sacred traditional roles.
• Jennings believed there essentially was no difference between a gay man and a
straight man. He adopted a more private role, believing homosexuals as a group
had very little in common, and wanted to fight for the right to be left alone.
• Hay and the rest of the Mattachine Society collectively wanted
to make homosexuality visible to the public and fought for more
homosexual awareness.
Mattachine Society

5. Parting of the Ways
October 15, 1952 Jennings and small group
from the Mattachine Society met to discuss
separating from Mattachine and forming a
separate organization that would illustrate First Home of ONE,Inc
their own personal views more. 232 South Hill St., LA
November 15,1952 ONE Inc.'s Los Angeles-based organization formed
Articles of Incorporation signed by Antonio "Tony" Reyes, Martin
Block and Dale Jennings. Other founders were Merton Bird,
W. Dorr Legg, Don Slater, Chuck Rowland, and Harry Hay.
Mattachine Society and ONE, Inc

6. • ONE, Inc
- first LGBT organization in the United States to have its
own office, acted as a prototype LGBT community center
- “first national, legally sanctioned organization dedicated
to the promulgation of information on homosexuality,”
ONE Magazine was core to that mission
- readily admitted women, with their pseudonyms
• ONE, Inc. became dominant organization in Los Angeles
With financial assistance of Jennings’ sister Elaine
and her husband James Porter its magazine, ONE
became, for a period of time,
the voice of the gay and lesbian movement.
ONE, Inc and One Magazine

7. LGBT Magazines In the 1950’s
• One Magazine released its One Magazine Second
first issue in January 1953
• 1954 the Mattachine Society was
reorganized - incorporated in
California and established
"area councils" and
chapters around the US
Mattachine Review
debuted in 1954
November 1957 October 1958

8. LA Post Office Refuses to Deliver ONE
One, Inc. v. Olesen
• Los Angeles Postmaster Otto Olesen declared the October 1954 issue of ONE
"obscene, lewd, lascivious and filthy" and therefore unmailable under the Comstock
laws and refused to deliver it.
• ONE Inc. sued in U.S. District Court sought an injunction against Postmaster.
• March 1956, U.S. District Judge Thurmond Clarke ruled for the defendant. He
wrote: "The suggestion advanced that homosexuals should be recognized as a
segment of our people and be accorded special privilege as a class is rejected.”
• February, 1957 A three-judge panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
unanimously upheld that decision
• June 13, 1957 Attorney Julber filed a petition
with the U.S. Supreme Court

9. U.S. Supreme Court Decision
• January 13, 1958, U.S. Supreme Court
both accepted the case and, without
hearing oral argument, issued a terse
per curiam decision reversing Ninth Circuit.
The decision, citing its June 24, 1957 Ninth Circuit
landmark decision in Roth v. United States.
• One, Inc. v. Olesen -first U.S. Supreme Court
ruling to deal with homosexuality to address
free speech rights with respect to homosexuality. U.S. Supreme Court

10. Roth v. United States
Significance of One, Inc. v. Olesen
• Roth v. United States landmark case which redefined the Constitutional test for determining
what constitutes obscene material unprotected by the First Amendment.
• One, Inc. v. Olesen By protecting ONE, the Supreme Court facilitated the flourishing of a gay
and lesbian culture and a sense of community"
• At the same time the federal government was
purging homosexuals from its ranks.
• In its next issue, February 1958, ONE told its readers:
"For the first time in American publishing history, a decision binding on
every court now stands. ... affirming in effect that it is in no way proper
to describe a love affair between two homosexuals as constitut(ing) obscenity."

11. ONE Institute of Homophile Studies
The Education Division of One, Inc.
• 1956, ONE established the ONE Institute of Homophile Studies
Work: organize classes and annual conferences
Published the ONE Institute Quarterly, a journal dedicated to the
academic exploration of homosexuality.

12. Another Parting of the Ways
• In 1965, ONE Inc separated over irreconcilable differences between ONE's business manager Dorr Legg and One
magazine editor Don Slater.
• In October, 1965, Slater’s ONE: The Homosexual Viewpoint
changed name to Tangents
After a two-year court battle,
Dorr Legg's faction retained the name "ONE, Inc."
Don Slater's faction retained corporate library and archives. June, 1958 12th Year February 1964
• In 1968, Slater's group became the
Homosexual Information Center or HIC,
a non-profit corporation devoted to a continuing inquiry
into the nature, circumstances, and social issues of homosexuality.
• The Tangent Group registered d.b.a. of the Homosexual Information Center
• December 1969 One ceased publication.
December 1966

13. Mergers – Archives – Today
• In 1996, One, Inc. merged with ISHR, Institute for the Study of Human Resources,
a non-profit organization created by transgender philanthropist Reed Erickson, to
allow ONE to accept charitable donations.
ISHR was the surviving organization and ONE the merging corporation.
• In 2005, the HIC donated historic materials, including most of ONE Inc’s, Oviatt
Library at California State University, Northridge.
• In October 2010, ONE transferred its
Archives to the
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives
for preservation at USC.
ONE, Inc. continues to exist to organize exhibits
and gather new material