“Although specific bisexual organizations did not develop in the United States until the 1970s and in Europe until the 1980s, individuals who were attracted to both women and men were involved in many of the early gay rights groups on both sides of the Atlantic. However, most were not open about their bisexuality, either because they did not feel the need to assert a separate bisexual identity or because they feared being ostracized for having different-sex relationships.
For example, the vice president of the Society for Human Rights, the first known male homophile organization in the United States (established in Chicago in 1924), was bisexual and married. He had to keep his bisexuality a secret, however, as the group denied membership to bisexuals, believing that they would be less committed to the cause.
Bisexual women and men also joined the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis, and other American homophile organizations founded in the 1950s and 1960s. The first gay college group, Columbia University's Student Homophile League, was established by Stephen Donaldson (born Robert Martin), an openly bisexual student, in 1966. With his support, other campuses soon created similar organizations, leading to the development of gay groups on college campuses throughout the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“But, as with the Society for Human Rights, bisexuals were not always accepted in the homophile movement during the 1950s and 1960s. It was feared that they would retreat to the closet (even though many lesbians and gay men in the movement were not entirely open themselves) and had less to lose than lesbians or gay men. Yet many of the people who sought the assistance of homophile organizations were bisexual.
In contrast, bisexuality was often accepted and, at times, celebrated in the gay and sexual liberation movements of the early 1970s. Both radical gay groups such as the Gay Liberation Front and organizations that consisted mainly of heterosexually-identified "swingers" such as the Sexual Freedom League encouraged sexual fluidity and experimentation, believing that people should be free to love regardless of gender .
But gay liberationists who were bisexual still often felt compelled to represent themselves as gay in order to challenge compulsory heterosexuality and avoid suspicions that they were "selling out”.”
- From Bisexual Movements, GLBTQ archive 2004
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