A Queer History of the United StatesA Queer History of the United States

"In this revised and expanded 15th anniversary edition of A Queer History of the United States, Michael Bronski's classic book now covers 500 years, bringing queer history into the 21st century"-- Provided by publisher.
"It is the first comprehensive history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender America, from pre-1492 to the present, and this new edition further illuminates how profoundly LGBTQ+ people have changed America. Drawing upon primary documents, literature, and popular culture, Bronski weaves a comprehensive tapestry of LGBTQ+ history, providing startling examples of unknown or ignored aspects of our collective past. From the ineffectivesness of sodomy laws in the colonies, to how rock music and youth culture unintentionally engendered the devastating backlash against gay rights in the late 1970s; from individuals such as Robert Treat Paine and Ezekiel Dodge, Harvard classmates in 1774 who formed a deep, loving relationship and wrote passionate love letters to one another, to Lucy Hicks Anderson, a married African American socialite and celebrity chef in Oxnard, California, whose story appeared in Time magazine in 1945 after her transgender identity became known, Bronski covers an electic breadth of facts and stories. This revised edition includes details on the evolution of the transgender liberation movement, the upsurge of vibrant queer movements of color, and the groundbreaking emergence of new sexual and gender identities, and concludes by analyzing the current conservative backlash against LGBTQ+ rights, racial and social justice policies, and the drive to eradicate historical diversity. Not so much about "gay history" as it is about all American history, Bronski's dynamic and revealing narrative radically reframes how we understand our past and, more importantly, our present" -- From dust jacket.