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The One Thing All LGBT Activists Agree On
How do I begin to even describe Lillian Faderman’s The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle? By saying it’s a book that nearly every reviewer and activist has described as the most well-written and researched, epic historical book about the LGBT movement? First of all, I want to confess: I am in this book. So is my wife. But were we not in this book, I would still regard it as the greatest literary achievement chronicling our struggle for equal rights, human rights, liberation, and finally, civil rights.
Most of us know —and if you don’t, you should, so Google — who Lillian Faderman is. She is a Lambda Literary and Stonewall Book award-winning author, scholar, and retired college professor. (She is also married to Phyllis Irwin, and they are mothers and grandmothers).
Faderman covers everything from the early witch hunts of homosexuals and the first attempts to fight back, to Stonewall to Anita Bryant to “don’t ask, don’t tell” to the marriage equality movement. But what makes Faderman’s book so compelling is that she did over 150 interviews, not just of the famous activists, but everyday LGBT people harmed by the hatred against us. She depicts the rise and fall of the early gay rights groups, compelling stories that have not been told very much but deserve to be.
She gets it right about Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings, two people rightfully described as what they called each other: the mother and father of the gay rights movement. The book is a page-turner, very difficult to put down. But I am just one activist saying that this is a brilliant must read book. Why believe just me? So here are some quotes about The Gay Revolution:
“The Gay Revolution fills a yawning gap in history literature, providing readers for the first time with a history of the entire LGBT civil rights movement, from its inception in 1950 up through the current day. Anyone who reads Faderman’s passionate narrative will recognize it as a story that ennobles the human spirit and upholds the democratic ideals at the heart of this country’s founding documents.” — David Carter, author of Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution
“The Gay Revolution docments the momentous effort to decriminalize homosexuality and humanize homosexuals.” — Col. (ret.) Margarethe Cammermeyer, highest-ranking officer to challenge the military’s antigay policy
“Lillian Faderman has delivered the comprehensive account of one of the most extraordinary social movements in modern history. As gay people approach equality under the law, Faderman charts the course that brought such remarkable changes so swiftly. It is a dynamic book that matches the power of the movement it describes.” — Cleve Jones, founder of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt
“The Gay Revolution is the definitive history of the gay rights movement in America. This book will play with your emotions as Lillian Faderman takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of the victories and sacrifices made by the LGBT community and its allies to arrive at this point in time. This is the story of civil rights for the 21st century!” — Rev. Troy D Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Churches
“The Gay Revolution will be the standard by which all subsequent histories are measured. The fact that it is written in clear English is in itself a cause for celebration.” — Rita Mae Brown, author (Rubyfruit Jungle) and lesbian activist
I have left out glowing remarks by Freedom to Marry’s Evan Wolfson and other fantastic reviews. What is so astounding about all of the reviews is — and I will let you in on an open secret — is that many activists (dare I say most) have fought with each other over the decades.
So what finally brought so many of us to agree on one thing? It was Lillian Faderman’s book. The Gay Revolution should be taught in every civil rights class in every high school and on every campus. And everyone, all of you, should buy it and read it. I won’t ask you to do it for us, the old ones who gave so much for so many decades (although I want to ask, but I don’t need to guilt you). I will ask you to do it because this is the most honest, compelling history of our movement, and if you participated, you will love remembering, and if you did not, it will inspire you to passionately rise up and get involved.
ROBIN TYLER (left) is a longtime Los Angeles-based LGBT activist, and with her wife, Diane Olson, was one of the original plaintiffs to sue for the freedom to marry in California.
Robin Tyler
www.advocate.com/books/2015/9/11/one-thing-all-lgbt-activists-agree
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