LGBTQ+ History

Updated September 19, 2022
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And the band played on : politics, people, and the AIDS epidemic
Shilts, Randy
Paper Book
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this...
Odd girls and twilight lovers : a history of lesbian life in twentieth-century America
Faderman, Lillian.
Paper Book
As Lillian Faderman writes, there are "no constants with regard to lesbianism," except that lesbians prefer women. In this groundbreaking book, she reclaims the history of lesbian life in twentieth-century America, tracing the evolution of lesbian identity and subcultures from early networks to more...
Gay New York : gender, urban culture, and the making of the gay male world, 1890-1940
Chauncey, George
Paper Book
The award-winning, field-defining history of gay life in New York City in the early to mid-20th century Gay New York brilliantly shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed only in the closet, where gay men were isolated, invisible, and self...
The celluloid closet : homosexuality in the movies
Russo, Vito
Paper Book
Praised by the Chicago Tribune as "an impressive study" and written with incisive wit and searing perception--the definitive, highly acclaimed landmark work on the portrayal of homosexuality in film.
Transgender history : the roots of today's revolution
Stryker, Susan
Paper Book
A timely second edition of the classic text on transgender history, with a new introduction and updated material throughout Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to...
Stonewall
Duberman, Martin B.
Paper Book
"As scholars we should read Stonewall, and as teachers we should assign it. All of us will be challenged to build on it."-Michael Sherry, Northwestern Univ. "Both a fascinating account of the birth of gay liberation and a replay of the turbulent, society-changing 60s."-San Francisco Chronicle.
Hidden from history : reclaiming the gay and lesbian past
Duberman, Martin B.
Paper Book
Winner of two Lambda Rising Awards. "A landmark of a book and a landmark of ideas that will shatter ignorance and delusion."-Catharine Stimpson.
The gay metropolis, 1940-1996
Kaiser, Charles.
Paper Book
"For hundreds of thousands of gay Americans, New York City is the literal gay metropolis: the place where they have learned how to live openly, honestly, and without shame. But the figurative gay metropolis is much larger: it encompasses every place on every continent where gay people have found the...
A queer history of the United States
Bronski, Michael
Paper Book
Winner of the Stonewall Book Award in nonfiction The first comprehensive history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender America, from pre-1492 to the present "Readable, radical, and smart-a must read."-Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home ...
Queer : a graphic history
Barker, Meg-John
Paper Book
'Queer: A Graphic History Could Totally Change the Way You Think About Sex and Gender' Vice Activist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Jules Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel. ...
Coming out under fire : the history of gay men and women in World War Two
Bérubé, Allan.
Paper Book
Based on interviews with gay and lesbian veterans, wartime letters, recently declassified government documents, and other sources, Berube tells the story of how the military's mobilization for war made soldiers confront homosexuality in their personal lives and changed the ways that homosexuality...
Boots of leather, slippers of gold : the history of a lesbian community
Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky
Paper Book
"Soars on the plain yet eloquent voices of the women...A necessary and overdue addition to the archives of lesbian and gay history."—The Boston Globe. Chronicles working-class lesbians in Buffalo, New York from the 1930s through the 60s.
Strangers : homosexual love in the nineteenth century
Robb, Graham
Paper Book
The nineteenth century was a golden age for those people known variously as sodomites, Uranians, monosexuals, and homosexuals. Long before Stonewall and Gay Pride, there was such a thing as gay culture, and it was recognized throughout Europe and America. Graham Robb, brilliant biographer of Balzac,...
How to survive a plague : the inside story of how citizens and science tamed AIDS
France, David
Paper Book
A New York Times 2016 Notable Book The definitive history of the successful battle to halt the AIDS epidemic--from the creator of, and inspired by, the seminal documentary How to Survive a Plague. A riveting, powerful telling of the story of the...
Queer city : gay London from the Romans to the present day
Ackroyd, Peter
Paper Book
A history of the development of London as a European epicenter of queer life. In Queer City, the acclaimed Peter Ackroyd looks at London in a whole new way-through the complete history and experiences of its gay and lesbian population. In Roman Londinium, the city was...
The gay revolution : the story of the struggle
Faderman, Lillian
Paper Book
The fight for gay, lesbian and trans civil rights is the most important civil rights issue of the present day. Based on rigorous research and more than 150 interviews, The Gay Revolution tells this unfinished story not through dry facts but through dramatic accounts of passionate struggles, with all...
The Stonewall reader
Baumann, Jason
Paper Book
For the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, an anthology chronicling the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded it, with a foreword by Edmund White. Finalist for theRandy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, presented by The...
The deviant's war : the homosexual vs. the United States of America
Cervini, Eric
Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY. INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER. New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Winner of the 2021 Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction. One of The Washington Post's Top 50 Nonfiction Books of 2020....
Black on both sides : a racial history of trans identity
Snorton, C. Riley
Paper Book
Winner of the John Boswell Prize from the American Historical Association 2018 Winner of the William Sanders Scarborough Prize from the Modern Language Association 2018 Winner of an American Library Association Stonewall Honor 2018 Winner of Lambda Literary...
Last call : a true story of love, lust, and murder in queer New York
Green, Elon
Paper Book
**WINNER OF THE EDGAR® AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME** A "terrific, harrowing, true-crime account of an elusive serial killer who preyed upon gay men in the 1990s." -The New York Times (Editor's Pick) "In this astonishing and powerful work of...
The lavender scare : the Cold War persecution of gays and lesbians in the federal government
Johnson, David K.
Paper Book
The McCarthy era is generally considered the worst period of political repression in recent American history. But while the famous question, "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" resonated in the halls of Congress, security officials were posing another question...
When Brooklyn was queer
Ryan, Hugh
Paper Book
The never-before-told story of Brooklyn's vibrant and forgotten queer history, from the mid-1850s up to the present day. ***An ALA GLBT Round Table Over the Rainbow 2019 Top Ten Selection*** ***NAMED ONE OF THE BEST LGBTQ BOOKS OF 2019 by Harper's Bazaar*** ...
Let the record show : a political history of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993
Schulman, Sarah
Paper Book
Based on more than two hundred interviews with ACT UP members and rich with lessons for today's activists, Let the Record Show is a revelatory exploration - and long-overdue reassessment - of the coalition's inner workings, conflicts, achievements, and ultimate fracture. Sarah Schulman, one of the...
Natural born celebrities : serial killers in American culture
Schmid, David
Paper Book
In August 1934, young Cyril L. wrote to his friend Billy about all the exciting men he had met, the swinging nightclubs he had visited, and the vibrant new life he had forged for himself in the big city. He wrote, "I have only been queer since I came to London about two years ago, before then I...
A desired past : a short history of same-sex love in America
Rupp, Leila J.
Paper Book
With this book, Leila J. Rupp accomplishes what few scholars have even attempted: she combines a vast array of scholarship on supposedly discrete episodes in American history into an entertaining and entirely readable story of same-sex desire across the country and the centuries. ...
We are everywhere : protest, power, and pride in the history of Queer Liberation
Riemer, Matthew
Paper Book
Have pride in history.A rich and sweeping photographic history of the Queer Liberation Movement, from the creators and curators of the massively popular Instagram account LGBT History. "If you think the fight for justice and equality only began in the streets outside...
David Bowie made me gay : 100 years of LGBT music
Bullock, Darryl W.
Paper Book
LGBT musicians have shaped the development of music over the last century, with a sexually progressive soundtrack in the background of the gay community's struggle for acceptance. With the advent of recording technology, LGBT messages were for the first time brought to the forefront of popular...
Female husbands : a trans history
Manion, Jen
Paper Book
Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were female husbands and the women who loved them. Female husbands - people assigned female who transed gender, lived as men, and married women - were true queer pioneers. Moving deftly from the colonial era to just before the First...
Secret city : the hidden history of gay Washington
Kirchick, James
Paper Book
For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers, and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to...
Bad gays : a homosexual history
Lemmey, Huw
Paper Book
These "very funny-deep dives into the lives of the most dastardly queer people in history" offer a passionate argument for rethinking gay politics beyond identity (Vogue). What can we learn from the homosexual villains, failures, and baddies of our past? ...
Queer images : a history of gay and lesbian film in America
Benshoff, Harry M.
Paper Book
From Thomas Edison's first cinematic experiments to contemporary Hollywood blockbusters, Queer Images chronicles the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer sexualities over one hundred years of American film. The most up-to-date and comprehensive book of its kind, it explores not...
Indecent advances : a hidden history of true crime and prejudice before Stonewall
Polchin, James
Paper Book
Edgar Award finalist, Best Fact Crime American Masters (PBS), "1 of 5 Essential Culture Reads" One of CrimeReads' "Best True Crime Books of the Year" "A fast-paced, meticulously researched, thoroughly engaging (and often infuriating) look-see into the...
The engagement : America's quarter-century struggle over same-sex marriage
Issenberg, Sasha
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR . The riveting story of the conflict over same-sex marriage in the United States-the most significant civil rights breakthrough of the new millennium "Full of intimate details, battling personalities, heated court cases, public...
Gay voices of the Harlem Renaissance
Schwarz, A. B. Christa
Paper Book
"Heretofore scholars have not been willing?perhaps, even been unable for many reasons both academic and personal?to identify much of the Harlem Renaissance work as same-sex oriented. . . . An important book." ?Jim Elledge This groundbreaking study explores the Harlem Renaissance as a...
The women's house of detention : a queer history of a forgotten prison
Ryan, Hugh
Paper Book
This singular history of a prison, and the queer women and trans people held there, is a window into the policing of queerness and radical politics in the twentieth century. The Women's House of Detention, a landmark that ushered in the modern era of women's...
Fire Island : a century in the life of an American paradise
Parlett, Jack
Paper Book
*A Town and Country Must-Read Book of Summer* *A BUZZFEED BEST BOOK OF JUNE* *A Washington Post "Book to Read This Summer"* *AN ADVOCATE BEST LGBTQ+ BOOK OF 2022* *A USA Today "Book to Celebrate Pride Month"* *A New York...
Public faces, secret lives : a queer history of the women's suffrage movement
Rouse, Wendy L.
Paper Book
Honorable Mention for the 2023 Francis Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize 2023 Judy Grahn Award-Publishing Triangle Finalist Restores queer suffragists to their rightful place in the history of the struggle for women's right to vote The women's suffrage...

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