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WE ARE erroneously given credit as the founders of the Daughters of Bilitis in San Francisco in 1955. It wasn't even our idea. A young Filipina immigrant envisioned a club [...]

When the Universalist minister Wallace de Ortega Maxey published his magnum opus, Mem Is a Sexual Being, in late 1958, he pulled few punches. Religion as practiced in the United [...]

'WHO IS THE WOMAN on the cover,' Richard Lindsay asks in the opening line of his book on Bible-based epic movies, 'and why is she in a chariot being drawn [...]

The article explores the mainstreaming of large gay and lesbian organizations that has led to a more conservative turn in such movements. It traces the strategic amnesia of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAAD) and its impact on the critical potential of queer media advocates that the movement protected.

The use of the rhetoric of child protectionism by proponents of same-sex marriage in contemporary times is discussed through a comparison with Anita Bryant's 1977 child-centered campaign against gay rights in Florida.

The article traces the origins of homonormativity in France's Homosexual Front for Revolutionary Action (FHAR) during the 1970s, particular the Caucasian/Arab racial divisions in same-sex relations. The influence of gay activism on contemporary lesbian and gay identity politics in the country is explored.

The strategies of two gay safe streets patrols during the 1970s, in San Francisco and New York City, demonstrate how activism against antigay violence became a means to claim geographic spaces as 'gay ghettoes'.

The article examines the complex alliances formed between lesbian and gay activists and prison inmates during the gay liberation movement of the 1970s. The encounters reflected efforts to prevent discrimination against prisoners and to implement a homo-/heterosexual binary system like the one existing on the outside.

The manner in which changes in sociopolitical context influence the gendered collective identity and gender composition of the gay and lesbian rights movements overtime, is studied. It is shown that shifts in the sociopolitical context contribute to the literature on gender, sexuality, and social movements by demonstrating that countermovement can mobilize stigma in a way that heightens identity salience and alters collective identities.

This article discusses gay history in the United States since the end of the Second World War, focusing on the founding of the Mattachine Society in 1951, the first gay rights organization in America. Issues include the founding of the society among homosexual communists in Los Angeles, early schism in the group and its embrace of conservative politics advocating the adoption of heterosexual lifestyles whichh lead to its decline by the late 1950s.

Samuel Morris Steward discusses homosexuality and gay life in nineteen fifties Chicago. Topics include McCarthyism, the leather movement, and the gay liberation movement.

The Continental Bath and Health Club became the capital of New York's gay scene, and an important entertainment venue. Its role in fostering cabaret acts and in launching Bette Midler's career is analyzed.

In 1932 Magnus Hirschfeld, the eminent German sexologist, visited Greece. It was after a long journey that took him round the world, lecturing about the new science he had created. In the Greek capital his unconventional theories concerning an intermediate 'third sex' and his ideas about sexual reform became the object of an attack in the local press. Close examination of the debate which followed reveals some interesting points regarding Hirschfeld's approach to publicity and his attempts to foster an emancipation movement for homosexual issues.

ONE of the most dramatic revolutions in lesbian and gay history, and perhaps the greatest victory of the gay rights movement, is the transformation in psychiatric approaches to homosexuality. Indeed, [...]

Bonnie Zimmerman interviewed by Susan Sayer in San Diego, November 15th, 1994 In 1973 Jill Johnston's Lesbian Nation: The Feminist Solution(1) was published with the following dedication: This book is [...]

The post-World War II years saw the rebirth of politically-neutral gay rights groups in the Western world. In the 1970s, these groups became radical and utopian, following the 1969 Stonewall rebellion. Socialism, whose aim was to effect the emancipatory goal of the Enlightenment, has made few contributions to gay emancipation. However, as the 20th century draws to a close, gay and lesbian groups are starting to seek their own autonomous politics, independent of parties. Indeed, recent trends show how political parties call for the support of the gay movement, rather than vice versa.

The emergence of homophile social movements and political culture is discussed with regard to homophile internationalism as homosexuals seek contacts and cultural sources in overseas communities. Details on homophile literature and developmental differences between homosexuals in different parts of the world are also presented.