Gay history book
Men Like That
We don’t usually associate thriving queer identity with rural America, but John Howard’s unparalleled history of queer life in the South persuasively debunks the myth that gay desires can’t find statement outside the big urban area. In fact, this guide shows that the nominally conservative institutions of small-town life—home, church, school, and workplace—were the very sites where queer sexuality flourished. As Howard recounts the life stories of the ordinary and the legendary, often in their hold words, he also locates the material traces of queer sexuality in the landscape: from the farmhouse to the church social, from sports facilities to roadside rest areas.
Spanning four decades, Men Like That complicates traditional notions of a post-WWII conformist wave in America. Howard argues that the 1950s, for example, were a period of vibrant queer networking in Mississippi, while during the so-called "free love" 1960s homosexuals faced violent oppression. When queer sex was linked to racial agitation and when key civil rights leaders were implicated in homosexual acts, authorities cracked down and literally ran the accused out of town.
In addition to fi
LGBTQ History Month: 17 must-read books about queer history
In honor of LGBTQ History Month, celebrated every October, here are books that aim to shed beam on and clarify significant historical moments that informed and shaped the latest lesbian, gay, pansexual, transgender and homosexual rights movement.
1. "The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle" by Lillian Faderman
A thorough introduction to the history of the lgbtq+ and lesbian civil rights movements, this book chronicles the early struggles of LGBTQ individuals from the 1950s to present day using a compilation of enlightening interviews with politicians, military officials and members of the community.
2. "And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic" by Randy Shilts
A blend of investigative reporting and vivid storytelling, this account follows the rise of the AIDs epidemic using the narratives of doctors who were on the front lines of the outbreak, politicians and scientists who ignored it, and the real people who were affected by government's negligence.
3. "Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality" by Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell
“Love Wins
LGBTQ+ History Month: A Reading List
Check out these books about the history of lesbian, gay, fluid and transgender people for LGBT History Month and all year-round.
44 items
- Book, 2018Chicago, Ill. : Chicago Review Press, [2018] — HQ76.3.U52I4445 2018
- Paperback, 2014Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Squeeze, [2014] — HQ75.4.C64A3 2014
- Book, 2022Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Hanover Square Press, [2022] — F127.S9P32 2022
- Book, 2019Berkeley, California : Counterpoint, 2019. — HV6168.P65 2019
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Making Gay History (MGH) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that addresses the absence of substantive, in-depth LGBTQ+-inclusive American history from the public discourse and the classroom.
By sharing the stories of those who helped a despised minority take its rightful place in society as full and equal citizens, MGH aims to encourage connection, pride, and solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community—and to provide an entry point for both allies and the general public to its largely disguised history.
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In 1988, journalist Eric Marcus got a phone call from an editor friend at Harper & Row who asked if he’d consider writing an oral history of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement. Eric was working at CBS News at the time, but as an out gay man, he knew there were limits on his career there, so he left