''Friendship and Freedom'', published from 1924 to 1925, was a short-lived

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

-interest

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of ...

published by the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

-based

Society for Human Rights The Society for Human Rights was an American LGBT rights organization established in Chicago in 1924. Society founder Henry Gerber was inspired to create it by the work of German doctor Magnus Hirschfeld and the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee ...

(SHR), the first recognized

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...

organization in the United States. Henry Gerber, founder of the Society for Human Rights, started publishing the newsletter using his personal typewriter. The purpose of the newsletter was to act as a forum of discussion among gay men. The first issue of the newsletter was published in 1924, and a total of only two issues were published. ''Friendship and Freedom'' was the first known gay-interest periodical in the United States. This periodical, along with Jim Kepner's '' Gay Fan'' and

Lisa Ben Edythe D. Eyde (November 7, 1921 – December 22, 2015) better known by her pen name Lisa Ben, was an American editor, author, active fantasy-fiction fan and fanzine contributor (often using the name Tigrina in these activities), and songwrite ...

's ''

Vice Versa References

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'', is described by author of LGBT-issues James Thomas Sears as "amateurish". The title of the magazine, ''Friendship and Freedom'', was directly translated from a 1920s German gay magazine, '' Freundschaft und Freiheit''. In the 1920s, the United States was less accepting of LGBT people compared to contemporaneous

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, where many gay rights organization flourished during this period. As a result, Gerber's room in a boardinghouse was raided by the

Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the municipal law enforcement agency of the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, under the jurisdiction of the City Council. It is the second-largest municipal police department in the United States, behind t ...

in July 1925, and everything associated with the publication of the newsletter, including Gerber's typewriter and his personal diaries, were seized. Gerber was thrown into jail for three days and the news of his arrest was published in the contemporary press with the headlines, "Strange Sex Cult Exposed." All copies of ''Friendship and Freedom'' that were not in circulation were seized by the police and destroyed. No copy of ''Friendship and Freedom'' survives today. Despite lack of any existing copy, the existence of this publication was verified by American LGBT historian

Jonathan Ned Katz Jonathan Ned Katz (born 1938) is an American historian of human sexuality who has focused on same-sex attraction and changes in the social organization of sexuality over time. His works focus on the idea, rooted in social constructionism, that t ...

through a photograph published by sexologist and LGBT-rights advocate

Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist. Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Com ...

in 1927 depicting homosexual publications, among them ''Friendship and Freedom''.