Frontiers | Book Review: The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle

Contents:

• THE BOOK CLUB THAT HELPED SPARK THE GAY-RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• GAY MOVEMENT BOOKS
• 3 BOOKS ON THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• BOOK REVIEW: THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE
• GAY RIGHTS BOOKS
• GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT BEFORE THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
• WHY DID GAY RIGHTS TAKE SO LONG?
• THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT (428 RULTS)
• CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

THE BOOK CLUB THAT HELPED SPARK THE GAY-RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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.

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.

GAY MOVEMENT BOOKS

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. “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.

3 BOOKS ON THE EVOLUTN OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

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. 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. 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.

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

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. “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.

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 RIGHTS BOOKS

Book Review|3 Books on the Evolutn of the Gay Rights Movement ADVERTISEMENTNewsbookJune 9, 2017As gay pri month kicks to gear, culmatg ebullient paras across the untry, here are three books that take a look at the history of the gay rights movement.

GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

From the guerrilla activism of Act Up, the AIDS prott group, to the rporate buy- for the same-sex marriage mpaign, Hirshman ftly shows the rear how the gay movement has evolved and how, as she se , has AND LOATHING (1994)Rants and Rav of a Ragg AIDS Clone By David B. It offers a prehensive acunt of the ntemporary movement for gay, lbian, and trans rights, om the 1950s to the current time, focg on fascatg nversatns wh polil lears, soldiers, civil advot, and reprentativ of the LGBT populatn who experience such stggl on a daily basis. In 1953, psychiatrist Evelyn Hooker monstrated to her workers that they uld not tell the difference between the psychiatric evaluatn fdgs of straight and gay people, th startg to qutn the nsens of homosexualy as a medil group (p.

As a matter of fact, nsirg that LGBTQ people are beg an creasgly mted, regnized, and visible part of society (Chan, 2021), “The Gay Revolutn” is an exceedgly important book sce illtrat the origs and fluenc of the LGBTQ movement. Her discharge om the ary over her homosexualy had turned her to an Tob/The New York Public LibraryPublished July 19, 2023Updated July 23, 2023Lilli Vcenz, who beme a gay rights activist the hhed, reprsive era before the Stonewall rebelln of 1969, when such a ncept srcely existed, makg a mark as a newspaper edor, documentary filmmaker and psychotherapist voted to L. Vicenz beme, by most acunts, the first lbian to picket the Whe Hoe support of equal rights for gay people as a member of the Mattache Society of Washgton, an early gay rights prott — the first of s kd, acrdg to the Library of Congrs — and others that followed were small but brought visibily to a movement s fancy.

Vcenz beme the first out lbian to appear on the ver of a natnal gay magaze, The Ladr, a publitn produced by the untry’s first lbian-rights group, the Dghters of Bilis, acrdg to a retrospective on her life and reer by Lillian Farman, a historian of lbian and gay her scbbed, all-Amerin looks, Dr.

THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT BEFORE THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Vcenz looked like “every mother’s dream dghter, ” as Barbara Gtgs, The Ladr’s edor, put Vcenz also ntributed to the e on the other si of a mera, makg two 16-limeter films that were later hailed as signifint artifacts of the early gay rights first, tled “The Send-Largt Mory, ” documents a Mattache Society prott ont of Inpennce Hall Philalphia on July 4, morn ey, the black-and-whe film, roughly seven mut, seems anythg but seismic.

) And Kate McKnon, playg a so-lled Weird Barbie who experienced an extreme haircut and makeover at the hands of an experimental child, never actually answers the qutn anybody would have upon seeg her gay-ass haircut and knowg the actor’s sexualy.

WHY DID GAY RIGHTS TAKE SO LONG?

Wright, her cisn now go to the school board, which will discs the book challenge at s Monday meetg agenda and vote on a cisn on Tallahassee mom who submted the challenge, Katie Lyons, said her dghter, then a send grar at a lol elementary school, brought home the children's book about Kg, a tennis legend who is gay — and also brought qutns to her mother about a page regardg Kg's sexual orientatn. "Lyons matas the book is ntrary to state law, largely cg the Parental Rights Edutn Act, dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by crics, which prohibs stctn on sexual orientatn or genr inty book challenge law:Florida schools stggle to apply new book law which even Shakpeare is 'spect'Why 's beg challenged:Tallahassee mom mak se that 'I am Billie Jean Kg' book 'g' on parents' rightsWright, her July 10 remendatn, unters that the book isn’t ed as “stctn” and poted to a clarifitn the Florida Department of Edutn issued statg that "cintal referenc" books to LGBTQ people are not also said a new law, HB 1069, directed each school district to adopt procs allowg parents to lim their child’s accs to library material. "The excln of one of the profil jt bee of the intifitn of the ma subject as homosexual is not the tentn of any law or statute passed by the Florida Legislature, " Syett Lyons said the parental book review procs is not enough to screen qutnable materials accsible to their stunts.

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTFictnThe Gay Rights Movement Before the Gay Rights MovementIn his but novel, “The New Life, ” Tom Crewe reimag the liv of two pneers who studied, and supported, homosexualy 19th-century ZakhariaWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate NEW LIFE, by Tom CreweTom Crewe’s trite and fely crafted but novel mak fictn of real history: In London, the 1890s, two men, John Addgton Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis, llaborated on a study supportg eedom for “sexual verts, ” or what we would now ll gay rights.

THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT (428 RULTS)

” Their exchange eventually leads to the ia for a book, “Sexual Inversn, ” “an impartial and really scientific study” featurg anonymo acunts om gay is always a narrative risk when repulatg events historil fictn — pretermatn n an the pulse.

CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

Only at the police statn, when Gerber saw two of his gay and bisexual iends stg for mugshots, did he start to realize what was gog on: He was beg persecuted for lnchg what was likely Ameri’s first gay-rights an article he wrote for a gay magaze 1962, Gerber likened the next few days to an “Unholy Inquisn. Read: Creatg the first visual history of queer life before StonewallIn An Angel Sodom: Henry Gerber and the Birth of the Gay Rights Movement, Jim Elledge, a veteran chronicler of gay Chigo, mak the se that we should nsir Gerber not an asterisk, but a forefather of the gay-rights movement—one who would fluence later generatns of activists. He was particularly spired by the Instute of Sexual Science, a rearch anizatn head by the renowned sexologist Magn Hirschfeld, who gave trans people formal ID rds that helped them avoid arrt for returned to Chigo 1923, buoyed by a newfound unrstandg of what gay activism uld look like.

At that pot, few gay men and lbians nceived of themselv as beg part of a mory group, wh their own distct set of terts and civil-rights Gerber thought that gay people, pecially gay men, if they worked together, uld bee a polil force of their own.

He disguised s missn d language (“to promote and to protect the terts of people who by reasons of mental and physil abnormali are abed and hred the legal pursu of happs”), and the state formally rporated on December 10, 1924—makg the Society for Human Rights the first gay-rights anizatn registered by a state U.