In 1964, Esme Langley founded Britains's first organisation for lesbians, the euphemistically-titled Minorities Research Group (MRG). As with the Daughters of Bilitis, MRG realised that its members desperately needed
their own publication - and so Arena Three (or A3, as it became known) was created. One of its readers was Mary Renault, who wrote to Langley and MRG, praising ''the high and decent plane on which you are consistently keeping the whole subject''.
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Arena Three and MRG metamorphosised into Sappho magazine and social group in the early 1970s, under the steady hand of Jackie Forster, one of the best-known lesbians in Britain. Forster had been friends with Nancy Spain during the '50s, although she was then married. ''I didn't have a clue what was going on'', she said later. ''I was straighter than the Fosse Way at the time!'' Owing to financial difficulties, Sappho magazine finally ceased publication in 1981 but the social group continued into the 1990s.
Source: Lesbian Portraits
by Rose Collis
Publisher: M.Q.P.
Correction: Minorities Research Group was founded in 1963 to publish newsletters on subscription. Its first product was Homeland, for the homeless, which failed; the second product was Arena Three, to inform and support lesbians. Arena Three became very successful (but not financially) and was closed down by Esme Langley in 1972.
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφήJackie Forster was more interested in the social scene for lesbians.