William Dorr Lambert Legg (December 15, 1904 — July 26, 1994), known as W. Dorr Legg, was an American landscape architect and one of the founders of the United States gay rights movement, then called the

homophile movement The homophile movement is a collective term for the main organisations and publications supporting and representing sexual minorities in the 1950s to 1960s around the world. The name comes from the term ''homophile'', which was commonly used by the ...

Early years

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the second child of Franc C. Dorr and Frank E. Legg, his older brother was Victor Eldred Legg and younger brother was Frank Evariste Legg, Jr. He trained as a landscape architect at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

at Ann Arbor and from 1935 was professor of landscape architecture at

Oregon State Agricultural College Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

(now Oregon State University). He moved back to

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

in the 1940s to care for his father and the family business. In 1949 he moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

with his partner Merton Bird. In 1950 the couple founded Knights of the Clock, a support group for interracial gay couples. The couple actively joined the national Mattachine Society, but quickly joined those Mattachine members who separated from the Mattachine Society to publish the first homophile magazine,

ONE, Inc. One, Inc., or One Incorporated, was one of the first gay rights organizations in the United States, founded in 1952. Organization The idea for an organization dedicated to homosexuals emerged from a Mattachine Society discussion meeting held on O ...

As publisher of the ONE's monthly magazine, Legg sued the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

to defend the right of its publications to be distributed through the US Mail. The case, '' One, Inc. v. Olesen'' (355 U.S. 371; 78 S. Ct. 364; 2 L. Ed. 2d 352; 1958) was pursued through appeals to a successful conclusion in 1958 before the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. Legg traveled to

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 betwe ...

in the 1950s to recover the remains of the archives of the

Institut für Sexualwissenschaft The was an early private sexology research institute in Germany from 1919 to 1933. The name is variously translated as ''Institute of Sex Research'', ''Institute of Sexology'', ''Institute for Sexology'' or ''Institute for the Science of Sexua ...

Writing

Legg wrote and edited ''Homophile Studies in Theory and Practice'', published in 1994, co-published by One Institute Press, Los Angeles and GLB Publishers, San Francisco. In 1976 he helped compile ''An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality'', which listed 13,000 works on the subject from around the world. "It was widely recognized as the first massive compilation of information about homosexuality," said Richard Docter, a retired psychology professor at California State University, Northridge. The landmark compendium helped encourage serious scholarship on gay and lesbian issues, Docter said. ''An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality (in two volumes)'', edited by Vern Bullough, W. Dorr Legg, Barrett W. Elcano, and James Kepner, Garland Publishing Inc (New York & London), 1976.

Death

Legg died in Los Angeles on July 26, 1994 of pancreatic cancer. In 2011 the

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, is an American professional association dedicated to unbiased coverage of LGBTQ issues in the media. It is based in Washington, D.C., and the membership consists primarily of journalists, students, e ...

announced that Legg would be inducted into its hall of fame.

In popular culture

Season 4, episode 5 of the

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

“

Making Gay History ''Making Gay History'' is an oral history podcast on the subject of LGBT history, featuring trailblazers, activists, and allies. Most episodes draw on the three-decade-old audio archive of rare interviews that the podcast's founder and host Eri ...

” is about Legg,

Jim Kepner James Lynn Kepner, Jr. (192315 November 1997) was an American journalist, author, historian, archivist and leader in the gay rights movement. His work was intertwined with One, Inc. and ''One Magazine'', and eventually contributed to the formation ...

, and Martin Block.

Bibliography

* Cutler, Marvin (pseud of W. Dorr Legg)

Homosexuals Today: 1956 Handbook of Organizations and Publications. ONE, Inc., Los Angeles, CA 1956. * Legg, W. Dorr, David G. Cameron, Walter L. Williams and Donald C. Paul. Homophile Studies in Theory and Practice

ONE Institute Press, Los Angeles, CA and GLB Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 1994. * Bullough, Vern L., W. Dorr Legg, Barrett W. Elcano, James Kepner.
"An annotated bibliography of homosexuality."
The Institute for the Study of Human Resources, Los Angeles & Garland Publishing, Inc., New York & London, 1976. * Bullough, Vern L

Harrington Park Press, 2002.

References

External links

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legg, W.Dorr 1904 births 1994 deaths American landscape architects American social sciences writers American gay writers American LGBT rights activists Artists from Ann Arbor, Michigan Architects from Los Angeles American LGBT journalists LGBT architects LGBT people from Michigan University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers Activists from California 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers Michigan Republicans California Republicans Oregon Republicans Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from pancreatic cancer 20th-century LGBT people