The editorial of the first edition of the CIRCLE magazine in December 1973 was written by Alison Laurie for the CIRCLE Magazine Collective and the Wellington branch of SHE.  CIRCLE was the first lesbian magazine in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The lesbians involved were part of SHE - Sisters for Homophile Equality.

The magazine was printed monthly by Herstory Press, a feminist and lesbian press which was operated by Robyn and Jill in the big front room where they lived at 61 Aro Street, in Te Aro, Wellington. The magazine was collated there by groups of lesbians or on the dining room table at other lesbians’ flats. CIRCLE went on to call itself Lesbian Feminist CIRCLE in 1977 and continued until 1986. A reference collection of old CIRCLE magazines can be viewed at LILAC –  the Lesbian Information, Library and Archives Centre – a woman-only space in central Wellington.

In the first issue’s editorial, Alison specifically discusses lesbians’ connections with the gay movement.

“The gay movement in New Zealand has been largely male dominated, besides representing only a small group of the homophile community in New Zealand.  The majority of women identifying as lesbian in this country have very different problems from those experienced by gay men.  We are oppressed both as women and as lesbians – in employment, with our families, with home ownership, loans and insurance, in our social lives, our possibilities for contact with one another.  In certain areas of our lives we are as oppressed by gay men as we are by straight men.   We are not a break away group from Gay Liberation, but a representative group of lesbians, who feel that co-operation with our gay brothers will best be achieved in a separate movement, and that our prime responsibility, time and energy must be directed towards improving the conditions of lesbians, and for all women”.                                                                                                        

Alison goes on to discuss lesbians’ relationship to the women’s movement and agrees with the statement of Martha Shelley from USA: “in a society where men oppress women, to be a lesbian is a sign of mental health”. The editorial of 50 years ago finishes by saying that neither CIRCLE Magazine nor SHE want “to become an intellectual, middle-class movement or magazine”.