First Lesbian Tide Offices

Jeanne Córdova’s apartment at 1124½ Ogden Drive was the first working editorial headquarters of The Lesbian Tide, a publication described by historians as “the newspaper of record for the lesbian feminist decade.” The periodical began in 1971 as the newsletter of the Los Angeles chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, but it soon became an independent publication because of political differences between its radical lesbian feminist editors and the more conservative leadership of DOB. Córdova edited and published the newspaper from this address until early 1973, when the magazine moved to 373 No. Western Avenue in Los Angeles. During the Tide’s run from 1971 to 1980, Córdova and other Tide staff helped organize the 1971 Gay Women’s West Coast Conference and the 1973 West Coast Lesbian Conference at UCLA, which drew almost 2,000 women. The Los Angeles Daughters of Bilitis, which first published the Tide, had opened a lesbian community center in December 1970. The Lesbian Tide was also the first publicly circulated lesbian periodical in the United States to reach a national audience.