Why read Gay American History?

Book cover of Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A.

Book description

A collection of documents provides a continuous chronicle of homosexuality in America, from colonial times to the present, and of the persecution of gay males and lesbians throughout American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Gay American History as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Jim Elledge

Author

Gay American History was an epiphany for me and thousands of other gay men and women who were eager to learn about our history because books about it were few. I can’t describe the wonder I felt as I opened the book to thousands of rare documents (letters, diary entries, newspaper articles, book excerpts, medical and legal reports, etc.) that connected me to LGBT individuals who lived centuries earlier. Puritans, indigenous people, cross-dressing (“passing”) women, military personnel, artists of every ilk, government officials—their struggles, their defeats, and their victories, I learned, were no different in essence from those of the…

From Jim's list on gay history before Stonewall.