Review: 'The Gay Revolutn' by Lillian Farman

Contents:

• ‘THE GAY REVOLUTN,’ BY LILLIAN FARMAN
• THE GAY REVOLUTN
• THE GAY REVOLUTION
• THE GAY REVOLUTN : THE STORY OF THE STGGLE
• BOOK REVIEW: THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE
• FARMAN'S THE GAY REVOLUTN A MT READ
• REVIEW: 'THE GAY REVOLUTN' BY LILLIAN FARMAN
• THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE
• “THE GAY REVOLUTN”: AN INTERVIEW WH LILLIAN FARMAN
• BOOK REVIEW: THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE, BY LILLIAN FARMAN

‘THE GAY REVOLUTN,’ BY LILLIAN FARMAN

McDarrah/Getty ImagWhen you purchase an penntly reviewed book through our se, we earn an affiliate 2, 2015Lillian Farman’s “The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle” opens wh two vigt. Bee of such works, the broad ntours of Farman’s narrative will be faiar to many rears — the wch hunts of the 1950s; the early homophile movement driven by anizatns like the Mattache Society and the Dghters of Bilis; the Stonewall rts of 1969; the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s classifitn, the 1970s, of homosexualy as a mental disorr; the AIDS crisis; the crimalizatn of sodomy; the implementatn and repeal of the ary’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy; and the ph for marriage Farman’s book populat even the faiar rners of gay history wh new and vivid life.

THE GAY REVOLUTN

In what scholars of inty have signated the problem of “tersectnaly, ” lbians found themselv fallg between two mps, outsirs to both a male-domated homophile movement and a straight-domated women’s movement. “The Gay Revolutn” tak up the major antagonists and protagonists of the movement — the stori of Ana Bryant and Harvey Milk are particularly ronant — but this is also a self-nscly rtorative acunt, markg the ntributns of figur, straight and gay, who are ls well known.

The psychologist Evelyn Hooker showed her lleagu 1953 that they uld not distguish between the psychologil tt rults of gays and straights, thereby begng to challenge the herence of homosexualy as a diagnostic tegory. Jeanne Manford, who helped start Parents and Friends of Lbians and Gays after one of her gay sons died of a dg overdose and another was btally beaten, “opened a whole new rhetoric” by transformg “the outst homosexual to somebody’s child, a member of the fay.

THE GAY REVOLUTION

” The 1987 edn of Ronald Bayer’s book “Homosexualy and Amerin Psychiatry” scribed this speech as “by far the most dramatic event of the panel, ” but uld not or would not reveal the name of the speaker. ”3 His 1947 lecture to the Internatnal Associatn of Chiefs of Police on “Homosexualists and Sex Crim, ” a mol of bigotry and flawed logic, passed for science that lay people accepted uncrilly. The “born-male homosexualists, ” he asserted, are easy to spot by their female characteristics: their walk, body ntour, voice, mannerisms, texture of sk, and also their tert hoekeepg and theatril productns.

THE GAY REVOLUTN : THE STORY OF THE STGGLE

Though Simon granted that some homosexualists live as “cent members of society, ” many, he sisted, have psychopathic personali, are different to public opn, and bee “predatory prostut. He and his team had terviewed 5, 300 men, askg each of them over three hundred qutns: the Ksey Study found that 46 percent of Amerin mal admted that as adults they’d “reacted” sexually to both mal and femal; 37 percent admted to havg had at least one homosexual “experience” as an adult; 10 percent said that as adults they’d been “more or ls exclively homosexual” for at least three years.

13 Four years later, horrified (as they’d expected to be) by what the study told about homosexuals and their “victims, ” the legislators passed a nstutnal amendment that created a Department of Alholic Beverage Control and add a sectn to the Bs and Profsns Co that said that a liquor license uld be revoked if a place was a “rort” where “sexual perverts” ngregated. 14 The newly created ABC was charged wh matag public safety tablishments that served alhol—and homosexualy, the legislature and most of Ameri agreed, was tensely jur to the public. 15 • • • Lbians were ls likely than homosexual men to make a sexual move on a stranger after a brief nversatn, but women agents and unrver officers were sent to lbian bars as spi.

Yet there was almost no public prott among gay bar-goers when Pearl’s was lost; nor when the North Coastal Area admistrator of the ABC, Sidney Feberg, clared a “vigoro” mpaign to revoke the licens of all gay tablishments the regn. Though wealthy wh, pecially femal, didn’t generally get arrted and mted to state hospals for beg homosexual, as did people like Thomas Earl and Eldridge Rhos, they weren’t unsthed by the wispread assumptn that homosexualy was a sickns and need curg. Their knowledge on the subject me mostly om popular media—magaz such as the wily read Collier’s, which lled homosexualy “the biggt taboo, ” and associated wh “sexual maladjtment and sex crim that twist the liv of tens of thoands of people to patterns that are as piful as they are ugly.

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

Lillian Farman set the amb goal of chroniclg the gay rights movement om s humble origs behd closed doors post–World War II California to the major legal victori of the Obama admistratn ncerng gay ary personnel and marriage equaly. Her scriptns of the Gay Activists Alliance's “zaps” (r public monstratns signed to embarrass public figur)—pecially the equent zaps of New York Cy mayor John Ldsay—are vivid.

Comparisons will be ma between Farman's work and the earlier tellg of the story, Dudley Clenden and Adam Nagourney's Out for Good: The Stggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement Ameri (1999). The Gay Revolutn not only offers an update, movg the story forward to ver gay marriage, but also go back time to pture the years before the 1969 rts at the Stonewall Inn and, I hope, to bury forever the myth that the gay rights movement began at that bar Greenwich Village.

The Washgton Post "This is the history of the gay and lbian movement that we’ve been wag for: pulsively readable, refully anchored the historil rerd, overflowg wh rivetg stori, human peculiari and thoughtful analysis of the msy polil ntradictns that dogged this untidy movement. The Amerin Prospect "The Gay Revolutn will equip rears wh a greater knowledge of the movement’s history, and an appreciatn for the ccial role of dividual acts of urage wng and safeguardg equaly.

FARMAN'S THE GAY REVOLUTN A MT READ

The Gay Revolutn fills a yawng gap history lerature, providg rears for the first time wh a history of the entire LGBT civil rights movement, om s ceptn 1950 up through the current day.

The fight for gay and lbian civil rights—the years of outrageo jtice, the early battl, the heart-breakg feats, and the victori beyond the dreams of the gay rights pneers—is the most important civil rights issue of the prent day.

In “the most prehensive history to date of Ameri’s gay-rights movement” (The Enomist), Lillian Farman tells this unfished story through the dramatic acunts of passnate stggl wh sweep, pth, and feelg. The Gay Revolutn begs the 1950s, when gays and lbians were crimals, psychiatrists saw them as mentally ill, church saw them as sners, and society victimized them wh hatred. “A pellg read of a ltle-known part of our natn’s history, and of dividuals whose stori range om heart-wrenchg to spirg to enragg to motivatnal” (Chigo Tribune), The Gay Revolutn pats a nuanced portra of the LGBT civil rights movement.

REVIEW: 'THE GAY REVOLUTN' BY LILLIAN FARMAN

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. To brg this thoroughly wrten publitn, Farman sured the database of librari, journals, ernmental agenci, lbian and gay groups, and arrt reports, as well as nsultg over 100 mpaigners.

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.

Bee of gay monstratns, many of which were iated by LGBTQ Ain-Amerins and therefore were closely associated wh the civil rights movement, police btaly creased signifintly the 1970s (Kane, 2013; Stone, 2016). 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. ” —The Washgton Post The sweepg story of the stggle for gay and lbian rights—based on amazg terviews wh policians, ary figur, and members of the entire LGBT muny who face the challeng every fight for gay and lbian civil rights—the years of outrageo jtice, the early battl, the heart-breakg feats, and the victori beyond the dreams of the gay rights pneers—is the most important civil rights issue of the prent day.

THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE

Farman (Naked the Promised Land), a scholar of lbian history and lerature, renrs the slow transformatn of culture to a sweepg narrative of the Amerin stggle for gay and lbian civil rights. She digs ep to media and legislative archiv to nstct a prehensive narrative, begng the 1950s wh the spegoatg of homosexuals unr "vag-lewds" law and the first formulatn of homosexuals as a mory group, and ntug to the current and recent legal fights around the Employment Non-Discrimatn Act (ENDA), hate crime legislatn, and marriage equaly.

2015-10-25T20:00:27-04:00 Farman talked about her book, The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle, which she chronicl the gay revolutn om the 1950s, when homosexualy was nsired mentally ill, to the prent, cludg several landmark urt s. Lillian Farman talked about her book, The Gay Revolutn: The Story of the Stggle, which she chronicl the gay revolutn om the 1950s, when homosexualy was nsired mentally ill, to the prent, cludg several landmark urt s. 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.

She was ath, at a re facily, was nfirmed by a niece, Julia Bo, who did not specify a Vcenz’s journey to promence the nascent gay rights movement of the mid-1960s began after a personal llisn wh tolerance. In 1963, she was servg the Women’s Army Corps when a roommate outed her as gay, leadg to her discharge after only ne months took that rejectn as an opportuny to beg a fight agast jtice that would gui her for s. 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.

“THE GAY REVOLUTN”: AN INTERVIEW WH LILLIAN FARMAN

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. 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.

“Gay and Proud” shows a much larger, and shaggier, gatherg of protters takg a more ant stance the para, chantg fiantly and wavg plards wh msag like “I am a lbian and I am betiful. Farman’s putative hotbed, however, had a policy banng gay people om service, and she was thrown out while trag as a nropsychiatric technician at the Walter Reed ary hospal the 1970s, Dr.

It was Washgton — not Bethda, Md., where is we handle rrectnsA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 20 of the New York edn wh the headle: Lilli Vcenz, a Trailblazer the Gay Rights Movement, Di at 85. Gay historian Lillian GLBTQ Amerins, there is much to celebrate this year after the Supreme Court lg on marriage equaly, not to mentn baskg other recent victori like the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. In her stirrg new book The Gay Revolutn | The Story of the Stggle historian Lillian Farman asks "How do the amazg evolutn image and stat of gays and lbians, as well a bisexual and transgenr people, affect all Amerins.

BOOK REVIEW: THE GAY REVOLUTN: THE STORY OF THE STGGLE, BY LILLIAN FARMAN

" Farman is an out gay scholar and the pth of her rearch is breathtakg, as is her engagg style that illumat the dividual stori of many who faced untls jtic bee of their sexual inty. Startg wh the nascent anizatns the 50s and 60s like Mattache and Dghters of Bilis, Farman reunts how the first activists nnected a disparate muny to a natnal work of hope for gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr people.

She illumat the often over-looked post-Stonewall groups like The Gay Liberatn Front and Gay Activist Alliance and wr powerfully of the transformatnal rallyg cry for Gay Power.