“A groundbreaking work that turns a ‘queer eye’ on the criminal legal system, Queer (In)Justice is a searing examination of queer experiences-as ‘suspects,’ defendants, prisoners, and survivors of crime.
Starting with the almost accidental Stonewall riots in 1969 and shifting between key cities and events, they track what they describe as ‘the last great struggle for equal rights in American history.’ For homophile activists of the 1950s and early 1960s, that struggle had been about being left alone by police and politicians, but for those gathering to protest Stonewall, it was about “defining themselves to society as gay men and lesbians.” While there are many memoirs and smaller studies of the era, no other book so graciously spans the 30-year period covered here.” Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States by Joey L. That they have been able to shape this unruly material into a convincing narrative is impressive enough-yet they have also managed to write one of the most dramatic and beautifully structured histories in recent years. The authors of Out for Good, both writers for the New York Times, not only drew on extensive archival records but conducted nearly 700 interviews with the founders and opponents of the early gay rights movement. “Writing about events within living memory is one of the hardest tasks for a historian-there is too much information, too many perspectives. Gender and sexuality, repression and resistance, deviance and acceptance, identity and community-all are given a context in this fascinating work.” Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America by Dudley Clendinen Such notable researchers as John Boswell, Shari Benstock, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Jeffrey Weeks and John D’Emilio illuminate gay and lesbian life as it evolved in places as diverse as the Athens of Plato, Renaissance Italy, Victorian London, jazz Age Harlem, Revolutionary Russia, Nazi Germany, Castro’s Cuba, post-World War II San Francisco-and peoples as varied as South African black miners, American Indians, Chinese courtiers, Japanese samurai, English schoolboys and girls, and urban working women. “This richly revealing anthology brings together for the first time the vital new scholarly studies now lifting the veil from the gay and lesbian past. Rupp accomplishes what few scholars have even attempted: she combines a vast array of scholarship on supposedly discrete episodes in American history into an entertaining and entirely readable story of same-sex desire across the country and the centuries.” Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past by Martin Bauml Duberman, Martha Vicinus, & George Chauncey When we know this to be true, how can we ignore the significance of queer history? How can we appreciate what we have without knowing where we came from?Ī Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America by Leila J.
These numbers only increase when we talk about queer people of color and transgender people. Queer people still face a unique threat of violence, with the massacre at Pulse nightclub still looming in recent history, and hate-related homocides increasing by 82% from 2016 to 2017.
But the LGBTQ+ history is as essential to understanding society and ourselves as any other history, and it continues to be erased and silenced.Įven now, the current American president has declined to recognize June as Pride Month, as it has been in the past. This is not to say that kids shouldn’t be allowed to be carefree, because they absolutely should, and we should find joy in the safety of acceptance. Therefore, they should be allowed to be “carefree” and not hold the burden that older generations do-the burden of friends and lovers lost to the AIDS crisis, the struggle of fighting for equal rights, the staggering numbers of LGBTQ+ suicides and substance abuse, the shame and abuse suffered as a result of what remains a predominantly heteronormative society.Īnd while it’s true that things have gotten better-if you go to a Pride parade, it is more of a celebration than a protest as it used to be-the fact remains that being queer comes with hardship. The article, by Dylan Jones, argues that queer kids are now “treated in much the same way as other kids”, they have out and proud queer role models, and are entering into a much more accepting world than those that came before them. Back in February, a story broke from popular UK magazine Attitude entitled, “ Young Queer People Shouldn’t Be Obliged to Care About LGBT History”.