Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities

Before this book, gay history simply did not exist. There were a few tomes about great historical figures who happened to be gay, and Jonathan Katz's landmark "Gay American History," but virtually nothing about the gay men and women after World War II who fought amazing hostility, made countless strategic errors, suffered profound personal losses, and still managed to organize a movement that changed the way we all view individual rights in a civil society. Even publishing the first edition in 1983 was an act of courage. Today gay history is a thriving discipline, and the story has been told countless times, often more engagingly. For general readers, I recommend John Loughery's "The Other Side of Silence" and Lilian Faderman's "Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers." But for students and scholars, this is a model of historical research and an inspiration.

John D'emilio's book clearly make the point about the minority status of the homosexual in America. The start of the first organizations to promote a homosexual presents, with their naive belief that they would be excepted, to the more militant efforts in the early sixties. D'emilio has documented carefully the many events of importants that led up the the stonewall riot. Making it clear that the fight didn't begin at stonewall, but many years before. He talks in detail about the different organizations that started, and how they developed and changed as the struggle continued. D'emilio did his homework on this one without question. If you were ever curious about the events that started the gay revolution this is a must read.