Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: Pride. The book is a collection of oral histories on the LGBTQIA+ Movement before, during and after the Stonewall Uprising.
This is the book I’ve been looking for.
The history of equity, freedom, liberation for LGBTQIA+ persons in this country is long but not well-recorded. The reason is obvious: many, most, really all of these human beings was considered morally corrupt at best and illegal at worst. It’s only in the last 15-20 years as straight, cis people start to be less terrible that these histories have been welcomed and fronted in the broader American narrative.
Martin Duberman’s book on Stonewall is an essential, if tedious read, with a limited scope. Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker is by no means all-encompassing but gives a rough layout.
The Stonewall Reader isn’t comprehensive either BUT what it does serve in showing a panoramic view of the lives of LGBTQIA+ folk before/during/after Stonewall, the reader gets a clear look at the complexities, contradictions and critical moments to how we got here. It doesn’t venerate Stonewall itself more than necessary but it does do a great job of showing how the uprising impacted the movement.
The deepest cut here to the curious reader should be the installation of how race and class impacted the Movement. Part of the reason why Gender Non Conforming folk (using that term here very broadly to respect the varied terms of the time that wouldn’t be appropriate today) got cast to the back is that many of them were poor and/or people of color. The notion that LGBTQIA+ rights came down to white gay men getting married comes from a narrative in which poorer folks, Black/Brown folks, trans folks and others outside of the white gay/lesbian umbrella had their many and various contributions erased. This allows these contributions to be returned to a very public record in their own words.
An essential reading for the history of sex and gender in the United States and a foundation on which one can build to write bigger and better things.