The Book Club That Helped Spark the Gay-Rights Movement | The New Yorker

Contents:

• THE GAY AGENDA BLUEPRT: A PLAN TO TRANSFORM AMERI
• THE BOOK CLUB THAT HELPED SPARK THE GAY-RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY MOVEMENT BOOKS
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• BOOK REVIEW: THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE
• RETHKG THE GAY AND LBIAN MOVEMENT
• 3 BOOKS ON THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY LIBERATN

THE GAY AGENDA BLUEPRT: A PLAN TO TRANSFORM AMERI

Well-rearched surveys (as opposed to some wh markedly skewed sampl and/or methodology) have nsistently placed the homosexual populatn of Ameri at around 2 to 3 percent—yet the fluence of homosexuals on Amerin culture is vastly out of proportn wh their actual numbers. A USA Today article last year reported 32 regularly appearg bisexual or homosexual characters primetime work scripted seri for the 2014-15 televisn season, wh another 64 appearg ble TV shows (Bill Keveney, “Y, You Really Are Seeg More LGBT Characters on TV, ” Oct.

THE BOOK CLUB THAT HELPED SPARK THE GAY-RIGHTS MOVEMENT

They then add this utn for those who would want to ph the gay agenda too far: “It almost go whout sayg that groups on the fartht marg of acceptabily such as NAMBLA [the North Amerin Man-Boy Love Associatn, which as s name suggts promot adult-child homosexual sex] mt play no part at all such a mpaign: spected child-molters will never look like victims... This strategy—aid and abetted by sympathetic news media and ernment agenci—has led to enterg a stage of aggrsive attacks by some the gay muny agast those who scerely believe that homosexual behavr vlat the laws, stctns and prcipl of God. Yet at the same time, they ma a statement showg that gays really aren’t the opprsed, victimized group Kirk and Madsen advote they be portrayed as: “Bee those gays not supportg fai ually have more discretnary e than average, they uld afford to ntribute much more.

“Bee most straightforward appeals are impossible, the Natnal Gay Task Force has had to cultivate quiet backroom liaisons wh broadst pani and newsrooms orr to make sure that issu important to the gay muny receive some verage. In honor of LGBTQ History Month, celebrated every October, here are books that aim to shed light on and clarify signifint historil moments that rmed and shaped the morn lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer rights movement. "The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle" by Lillian FarmanA thorough troductn to the history of the gay and lbian civil rights movements, this book chronicl the early stggl of LGBTQ dividuals om the 1950s to prent day g a pilatn of enlighteng terviews wh policians, ary officials and members of the muny.

"When We Rise: My Life the Movement" by Cleve JonThis semi-tobgraphil acunt follows Cleve Jon as he explor his inty as a gay man the 1950s, disvers a muny and a e through his mentor, Harvey Milk, and p wh the ravagg effects of the AIDS epimic. "Sister Outsir: Essays and Speech" by Audre LorA celebratn of tersectnaly, black lbian poet and femist Audre Lor analyz the prence of ageism, sexism, racism, classism and homophobia her own life through a llectn of lyril says and speech. "The Men wh the Pk Triangle" by Hez Heger (Used)In lurid tail, Hez Hager unfolds the te story of Josef Kohout — a man who was imprisoned a Nazi ncentratn mp for beg gay — and effectively remds the world of the torture gay dividuals suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime.

GAY MOVEMENT BOOKS

JohnsonWh the help of classified documents and terview wh ary officials, David Johnson argu that Senator Joseph McCarthy was jt as guilty of promotg anti-Communism paranoia as he was spirg polici that nsired homosexualy a threat to natnal secury.

"The Celluloid Closet: Homosexualy the Movi" by Vo RsoPublished 1987, Rso’s analysis of the portrayal of homosexualy film has laid the foundatn for the how we evaluate LGBTQ reprentatn film today and has supported the argument that reprentatn matters. The Uned Stat of Ameri" by Eric CerviWhile many believe the fight for LGBTQ rights began at New York Cy’s Stonewall Inn durg the summer of 1969, actually began wh a grassroots “homophile” movement that has been largely overlooked. Such notable rearchers as John Boswell, Shari Benstock, Carroll Smh-Rosenberg, Jefey Weeks and John D’E illumate gay and lbian life as evolved plac as diverse as the Athens of Plato, Renaissance Italy, Victorian London, jazz Age Harlem, Revolutnary Rsia, Nazi Germany, Castro’s Cuba, post-World War II San Francis—and peopl as varied as South Ain black mers, Amerin Indians, Che urtiers, Japane samurai, English schoolboys and girls, and urban workg women.

Startg wh the almost accintal Stonewall rts 1969 and shiftg between key ci and events, they track what they scribe as ‘the last great stggle for equal rights Amerin history.’ For homophile activists of the 1950s and early 1960s, that stggle had been about beg left alone by police and policians, but for those gatherg to prott Stonewall, was about “fg themselv to society as gay men and lbians.” While there are many memoirs and smaller studi of the era, no other book so gracly spans the 30-year perd vered here.”.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

“Unspeakable documents the major phas the evolutn of the gay and lbian prs while providg a wdow to the history of the movement, om the era of McCarthyism to the ancy of the ’60s and the Stonewall Rts, om the liberaly of the ’70s to the issue of AIDS the ’80s and the ‘outg’ of the ’90s”. Retracg the evolutn of sexology, and revisg morn epistemologil tegori of sexualy psychoanalysis, gay liberatn, social nstctnism, queer theory, blogy, and human geics, Angelis argu that bisexualy has historilly functned as the stctural other to sexual inty self, unrmg assumptns about heterosexualy and homosexualy.

Centered on the sexualy of racialized queer female subjects, the book’s varied archive—which clus burlque borr crossgs, daddy play, pornography, sodomy laws, and sovereignty claims—seeks to brg to the fore alternative sexual practic and machatns that exist outsi the sightl of mastream smopolan gay male culture.

By examg the procs of intifitn the work of filmmakers, performance artists, ethnographers, Cuban choteo, forms of gay male mass culture (such as pornography), mms, art photography, mp and drag, and televisn, Muñoz persistently pots to the tersectg and short-circug of inti and sir that rult om misalignments wh the cultural and iologil mastream ntemporary urban Ameri.”. In Comg Out Unr Fire, Allan Bebe exam pth and tail the social and polil nontatn—not as a story of how the ary victimized homosexuals, but as a story of how a dynamic power relatnship veloped between gay cizens and their ernment, transformg them both. Drawg on GIs’ wartime letters, extensive terviews wh gay veterans, and classified ary documents, Bebe thoughtfully nstcts a startlg history of the two wars gay ary men and women fought—one for Ameri and another as homosexuals wh the ary.”.

BOOK REVIEW: THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE

Drawg on newly classified documents and terviews wh former ernment officials, historian David Johnson chronicl how the myth that homosexuals threatened natnal secury termed ernment policy for s, ed thoands of liv, and phed many to suici. “Early the 1980s AIDS epimic, six gay activists created one of the most inic and lastg imag that would e to symbolize a movement: a prott poster of a pk triangle wh the words ‘Silence = Death.’ The graphic and the slogan still ronate today, often ed—and mised—to brand the entire movement. Now, based on hundreds of terviews, an exhstive search of public and prevly sealed fil, and over a of tensive rearch to the history and the topic, Stonewall: The Rts That Sparked the Gay Revolutn brgs this sgular event to vivid life this, the five story of one of history’s most sgular events”.

Bullock discs how gay, lbian, and bisexual performers fluenced Jazz and Blu; exam the almost fotten Pansy Craze the years between the two World Wars (when many LGBT performers were feted by royalty and Hollywood alike); chronicl the dark years after the prsn when gay life was driven ep unrground; celebrat the re-emergence of LGBT performers the post-Stonewall years; and highlights today’s most legendary out-gay pop stars: Elton John, Boy Gee, Freddie Mercury, and Gee Michael.”.

“Queer Imag surveys a wi variety of films, dividuals, and subcultur, cludg the work of discreetly homosexual filmmakers durg Hollywood’s Goln Age; classil Hollywood’s (failed) attempt to purge ‘sex perversn’ om films; the velopment of gay male mp Hollywood cema; queer exploatn films and gay physique films; the queerns of 1960s Unrground Film practice; pennt lbian documentari and experimental films; cematic rpons to the AIDS crisis; the rise and impact of New Queer Cema; the growth of LGBT film ftivals; and how ntemporary Hollywood als wh queer issu.”. “By examg the imag of homosexualy and genr variance Hollywood films om the 1920s to the prent, Rso traced a history not only of how gay men and lbians had been erased or monized movi but all of Amerin culture as well. Chroniclg the pictns of gay people such as the ‘sissy’ rol of Edward Everett Horton and Frankl Pangborn 1930s edi or predatory lbians 1950s dramas (see Lren Ball  Young Man wh a Horn and Barbara Stanwyck  Walk on the Wild Si), Rso tails how homophobic stereotyp have both reflected and perpetrated the opprsn of gay people.”.

RETHKG THE GAY AND LBIAN MOVEMENT

When Garrard was a neteen-year-old llege stunt, he was outed to his parents, and was forced to make a life-changg cisn: eher agree to attend a church-supported nversn therapy program that promised to ‘cure’ him of homosexualy; or risk losg fay, iends, and the God he had prayed to every day of his life. Instead, even when faced wh a harrowg and btal journey, Garrard found the strength and unrstandg to break out search of his te self and fivens.” Boy Erased is Conley’s memoir of his time a gay nversn program, and the way impacted his life.

“Known as ‘The Mayor of Castro Street’ even before he was elected to the San Francis Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk’s personal and polil life is a story full of personal tragedi and polil trigu, assassatns at Cy Hall, massive rts the streets, the misrriage of jtice, and the nsolidatn of gay power and gay hope.”.

3 BOOKS ON THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

He’d always assumed that, by the time he entered his twenti, he would velop sir for women, then marry and have 1954, on a bs trip to Cleveland, Segura stopped by a bookstore and saw a py of “The Homosexual Ameri, ” by Donald Webster Cory. The service didn’t have meetgs; Cory simply selected books and sent the tl to his rears, highlightg everythg om Marc Branl’s novel “The Barriers Between, ” about a man who murrs his iend for “unnatural advanc, ” to “Homosexualy and the Wtern Christian Tradn, ” a gay theologil history that Cory scribed as “the book that hundreds of our rears have been searchg for, ” one that “they uld give to iends, fay, and unsellors. ” Víctor Macías-González, a historian and the thor of a paper on Tony Segura, told me that many queer people refed to buy gay books, stead borrowg them through rental servic, which a number of bookstor had at the yet the early fifti saw a boom queer lerature, driven part by the rise of cheap paperbacks.

Together, they figured, they would have a direct le to the gay book the book service’s gural issue, sent out September, 1952, Cory promised that many of the books he featured would be available to his subscribers before they h stor. Cory do seem to have had a legal team vettg which books he remend: when Jay Ltle, a gay thor, wrote to Cory about placg his book “Maybe-Tomorrow” wh the service, Cory replied that, although he enjoyed the novel, “We have not only been advised, but orred by our lawyers, not to e your book. At a discsn group sponsored by the Mattache Society—a secretive gay anizatn that had formed Los Angel 1950—someone mentned the Cory Book Service, and soon afterward an attene ntacted Cory, askg for fifty newsletter-subscriptn rds.

GAY LIBERATN

He is the thor of numero histori, bgraphi, memoirs, says, plays, and novels, which clu Cur: A Gay Man’s Odyssey, Pl Robon, Stonewall, Black Mounta: An Exploratn Communy, The Worlds of Lln Kirste, and more than a dozen others. ”—Michael Bronski, thor of A Queer History of the Uned Stat “By startg the book wh a history of the Gay Liberatn Front, an orig of the radil gay left, Duberman provis a key to seeg the lims, nsiratns, and failur that followed.

E., for lbians, gays [homosexual mal], bisexuals, transgenr persons, and queer persons); seeks to elimate sodomy laws; and lls for an end to discrimatn agast LGBTQ persons employment, cred, hog, public acmodatns, and other areas of life. ) Gay rights prr to the 20th century Relig admonns agast sexual relatns between dividuals of the same sex (particularly men) long stigmatized such behavur, but most legal s Europe were silent on the subject of homosexualy and bisexualy.

Dpe Paragraph 175 and the failure of the WhK to w s repeal, homosexual and bisexual men and women experienced a certa amount of eedom Germany, particularly durg the Weimar perd, between the end of World War I and the Nazi seizure of power. In the Uned Stat this greater visibily brought some backlash, particularly om the ernment and the police: the ernment often fired gay civil servants, the ary attempted to purge s ranks of gay soldiers (a policy enacted durg World War II), and police vice squads equently raid gay bars and arrted their patrons.

In the Uned Stat the first major male anizatn, found 1950–51 by Harry Hay Los Angel, was the Mattache Society (s name reputedly rived om a medieval French society of masked players, the Société Mattache, to reprent the public “maskg” of homosexualy), while the Dghters of Bilis (named after the Sapphic love poems of Pierre Louÿs, Chansons Bilis), found 1955 by Phyllis Lyon and Del Mart San Francis, was a leadg group for women. In Bra 1957 a missn chaired by Sir John Wolfenn issued a groundbreakg report (see Wolfenn Report) remendg that private homosexual liaisons between nsentg adults be removed om the doma of crimal law; a later the remendatn was implemented by Parliament the Sexual Offenc Act. In the 1970s and ’80s, gay polil anizatns proliferated, particularly the Uned Stat and Europe, and spread to other parts of the globe, though their relative size, strength, and succs—and toleratn by thori—varied signifintly.

Now headquartered Geneva and renamed the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA World), plays a signifint role ordatg ternatnal efforts to promote human rights and fight discrimatn agast LGBTQ and tersex persons. This support, along wh mpaigns by gay activists urgg gay men and women to “e out of the closet” (ed, the late 1980s, Natnal Comg Out Day was tablished, and is now celebrated on October 11 most untri), enuraged gay men and women to enter the polil arena as ndidat. At the lol and natnal levels, the number of openly gay policians creased dramatilly durg the 1990s and 2000s, and 2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir beme prime mister of Iceland, which ma her the world’s first openly gay head of ernment.

In Ai, Asia, and Lat Ameri, openly gay policians have had only limed succs wng office; notable electns to natnal legislatur clud Patria Jiménez Flor Mexi (1997), Mike Waters South Ai (1999), and Clodovil Hernans Brazil (2006). Other issu of primary importance for the gay rights movement sce the 1970s clud batg the HIV/AIDS epimic and promotg disease preventn and fundg for rearch; lobbyg ernment for nondiscrimatory polici employment, hog, and other aspects of civil society; endg the ban on ary service for gay and lbian dividuals; expandg hate crim legislatn to clu protectns for gays, cludg transgenr dividuals; and securg marriage rights for same-sex upl (see same-sex marriage). Ary’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (1993–2011), which had permted gay and lbian dividuals to serve the ary if they did not disclose their sexual orientatn or engage homosexual activy; the repeal effectively end the ban on homosexuals the ary.