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A review by sevenlefts
The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle by Lillian Faderman
4.0
An excellent overview of the gay civil rights struggle over the last half century. The early chapters are a bit more chronologically organized, probably because there were fewer people and groups involved and the rather than multiple issues, there was just basic survival. The latter half of the book seemed more issue-focused (military service, city non-discrimination legislation, marriage equality, AIDS) and jumped around a bit more.
Faderman does that thing I love in overarching histories like this, using small personal stories as an entree into a larger movement. Some of the "stars" of this book were people I had heard of and read about before, many were new to me. It was shame that the major writing was finished just before last summer's landmark Supreme Court marriage equality ruling -- it had to be handled in the epilogue and didn't get her full treatment, which I would have enjoyed.
One theme that I didn't anticipate and that really stuck out for me was the struggle between factions within the gay right movement between radicals and the establishment -- and how radicals became established over time. Faderman addresses a lot in the book, and it was an eye-opener. Both approaches have done so much to further gay rights, and the division is still there. Maybe that's just a fixture of social movements in general.
A personal observation: there seemed to be a lot of attention paid to the style of clothes and types of cars that gay rights pioneers wore and drove. It was almost funny at times.
Faderman does that thing I love in overarching histories like this, using small personal stories as an entree into a larger movement. Some of the "stars" of this book were people I had heard of and read about before, many were new to me. It was shame that the major writing was finished just before last summer's landmark Supreme Court marriage equality ruling -- it had to be handled in the epilogue and didn't get her full treatment, which I would have enjoyed.
One theme that I didn't anticipate and that really stuck out for me was the struggle between factions within the gay right movement between radicals and the establishment -- and how radicals became established over time. Faderman addresses a lot in the book, and it was an eye-opener. Both approaches have done so much to further gay rights, and the division is still there. Maybe that's just a fixture of social movements in general.
A personal observation: there seemed to be a lot of attention paid to the style of clothes and types of cars that gay rights pioneers wore and drove. It was almost funny at times.