I'm Eric Marcus and this is the Making Gay History Podcast.

In our third episode, you'll meet Edith Eyed, whose pen name was Lisa Ben.

Back in the 1950s, a lot of people who got involved in the movement didn't use their real names,

because if you were found out you could lose your job and even lose your family.

So Edith's story starts even before that in 1947 when she published what she called vice versa, America's

gayest magazine.

And really, it was a newsletter for lesbians.

She typed it on her office typewriter

at RKO Pictures, where she was a young secretary.

Her boss told her she should look busy,

but not knit and not read.

So what do you do?

You write a newsletter for lesbians in 1947

and give them out to your friends.

But before she could tell me her story, I had to find her.

And all I had to go on was her pen name,

and that she lived in California.

It took me three months and 26 phone calls to find her.

This was pre-internet, so there was no choice.

And on the 26th phone call, she answered.

So not long after, I was sitting with Edith on her enclosed porch

with two of her 13 cats.

...