Southern California Women for Understanding

9054 Santa Monica Boulevard was the third headquarters of Southern California Women for Understanding (SCWU), one of the earliest lesbian nonprofit organizations in the country. The organization started in 1976 as a support group affiliated with the Whitman-Radclyffe Foundation, a San Francisco-based gay rights organization. After the two organizations separated in 1978, the group took on the name Southern California Women for Understanding and focused its efforts on educational and social events, fundraising, political advocacy, and providing services to the lesbian community. SCWU moved to the West Hollywood office on Santa Monica Boulevard by December 1984. At the time it held educational programs, theater productions, fundraising dinners, and more. SCWU catered primarily to professional middle and upper class women, according to historian Lillian Faderman. Records document the organization’s activities until 1999.