The
Lesbian Tide originated in 1971 as the newsletter for the
Los Angeles chapter of the
Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), a national lesbian rights organization, and was called the
LA DOB Newsletter. The newsletter was run by young members of the DOB and their radical political stance created a rift between the editors and older, less radical members of the DOB. In December 1972, the newspaper formally split from the DOB and, with a change in title to the
Lesbian Tide, it became an independent publication with
Jeanne Córdova (a former DOB member) as editor. When the
Tide expanded its distribution from the Los Angeles region to other U.S. cities, it became the first national lesbian newspaper. Córdova's ambition was to create a newspaper that was as widely circulated as
The Advocate, which at the time was targeted towards a gay male audience. Ultimately, the newspaper ceased publication in 1980. Wiccan feminist
Cerridwen Fallingstar contributed to the magazine in the late 1970s, under her birth name Cheri Lesh. ==Importance==