Not that long ago, an eager reader could have read in a single summer all the books on LGBTQ+ history that had been written. Now, more and more books are being published all the time. “Book Shelf” is an attempt to introduce you to some of those books and encourage you to read them and learn more about their subjects. We provide short summaries of the book and a link to the publisher's website. The Book Shelf highlights the most recent five books added and then features all of our books in alphabetical order. If you are an author and want us to add your book to the Book Shelf, please contact us at marcs@sfsu.edu.
A tidal wave of panic surrounded homosexuality and AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s, the period commonly called 'The AIDS Crisis'. With the advent of antiretroviral drugs in the mid '90s, however, the meaning of an HIV diagnosis radically changed. These game-changing drugs now enable many people living with HIV to lead a healthy, regular life, but how has this dramatic shift impacted the representation of gay men and HIV in popular culture?
Positive Images is the first detailed examination of how the relationship between gay men and HIV has transformed in the past two decades. From Queer as Folk to Chemsex, The Line of Beauty to The Normal Heart, Dion Kagan examines literature, film, TV, documentaries and news coverage from across the English-speaking world to unearth the socio-cultural foundations underpinning this 'post-crisis' period. His analyses provide acute insights into the fraught legacies of the AIDS Crisis and its continued presence in the modern queer consciousness.
This comprehensive reference guide tracks the development of the HIV/AIDS pandemic as it occurred in Toronto, Canada, during the years 1981 through 1990. Each entry in the chronology is combined with a brief bibliography of sources. Coverage is selective, and focuses on news reports and articles published in local mainstream newspapers and magazines as well as the gay press. Special attention has been given to important milestones, including the formation of community-based AIDS organizations, political action, lobbying, and fundraising, as well as demonstrations and memorials. In addition, artistic and cultural contributions related to AIDS as it was experienced in Toronto are included, such as books, dramatic productions, exhibitions, and films. Important developments elsewhere that were reported in the local Toronto press are included, such as the deaths of Rock Hudson and Ryan White, and the discovery of HIV. Appendices provide supplementary information on additional reading and a listing of names on the Toronto AIDS Memorial for the first ten years.
The women’s suffrage movement, much like many other civil rights movements, has an important and often unrecognized queer history. In Public Faces, Secret Lives Wendy L. Rouse reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the suffrage movement included a variety of individuals who represented a range of genders and sexualities. However, owing to the constant pressure to present a “respectable” public image, suffrage leaders publicly conformed to gendered views of ideal womanhood in order to make women’s suffrage more palatable to the public.
Rouse argues that queer suffragists did take meaningful action to assert their identities and legacies by challenging traditional concepts of domesticity, family, space, and death in both subtly subversive and radically transformative ways. Queer suffragists also built lasting alliances and developed innovative strategies in order to protect their most intimate relationships, ones that were ultimately crucial to the success of the suffrage movement. Public Faces, Secret Lives is the first work to truly recenter queer figures in the women’s suffrage movement, highlighting their immense contributions as well as their numerous sacrifices.
Last Call South Florida sweeps aside the glitter and glamour of the Sunshine State’s LGBTQ nightlife scene to reveal the vibrant tapestry of real people who thrived on both sides of the bar. From the harrowing days of bar raids and police arrests to the triumphs of hard-won rights, this book dives deep into the lives of those who made history.
Meet the investors and entrepreneurs who built the foundation, the entertainers, bartenders, go-go boys, drag performers, and “bar celebrities” who brought life to the stage, and the customers who found solace and community in these havens. This isn’t just a nightlife chronicle; it’s a celebration of a resilient community that emerged stronger from every challenge.
What makes South Florida’s LGBTQ bar scene unique is its dazzling blend of glamour, diversity, and unyielding spirit. Historians Fred Fejes and Rick Karlin have meticulously researched this distinctive community, covering an era from Prohibition to the present day. Focusing from Palm Beach to Broward, and Miami-Dade to Key West, they capture the essence of a community that has withstood the test of time and adversity.
Fejes and Karlin’s journey unearthed countless personal stories and experiences, bringing the history of South Florida’s LGBTQ bar community to life. Their extensive archival research and interviews have culminated in a captivating book that informs and entertains.
Last Call South Florida presents a rich tapestry of recollections, memories, histories, and artifacts. It’s not just a book; it’s a vital contribution to LGBTQ history, preserving the legacy of a community that shaped the cultural landscape of South Florida. Dive into this fascinating chronicle and celebrate the vibrant, resilient spirit of South Florida’s LGBTQ bar community.
Though today’s LGBTQ people owe a lot to the generations who came before
them, their historical inheritances are not always obvious.
Working with the archives of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical
Society, artist E.G. Crichton decided to do something to bridge this generation
gap. She selected 19 innovative LGBTQ artists, writers, and musicians, then
paired each of them with a deceased person whose personal artifacts are part of
the archive.
Including 25 pages of vivid images, Matchmaking in the Archive documents this
monumental creative project and adds essays by Jonathan D. Katz, Michelle
Tea, and Chris Vargas, who describe their own unique encounters with the
ghosts of LGBTQ history. Together, they make the archive come alive in
remarkably intimate ways.
Stranger Intimacy explores cross-racial intimacy and everyday life of migrants in cities and rural regions in the Western United States and the Canadian and Mexican borderlands. Tracing the labor, sexual and domestic experiences of South Asian migrants in the early 20th century, Shah examines more…
After World War II, Atlanta and Charlotte emerged as leading urban centers in the South, redefining the region through their competing metropolitan identities. Both cities also served as home to queer communities who defined themselves in accordance with their urban surroundings and profited to…
Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the trailblazing restaurant Mother Courage of New York City, Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses is the first history of the more than 230 feminist and lesbian-feminist restaurants, cafes, and…
During World War II, Mom Chung's was the place to be in San Francisco. Soldiers, movie stars, and politicians gathered at her home to socialize, to show their dedication to the Allied cause, and to express their affection for Dr. Margaret Chung (1889-1959). The first known American-born Chinese…
Freewheeling sexuality and gender experimentation defined the social and moral landscape of 1890s San Francisco. Middle class whites crafting titillating narratives on topics such as high divorce rates, mannish women, and extramarital sex centered Chinese and Japanese immigrants in…
The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire before Stonewall examines the worlds that Black queer women created in the interwar era and their important role in American culture at this time. From famous blues singers and performers like Ethel Waters and Bessie Smith, to activists and club…
In the early twenty-first century, comparisons between the modern civil rights movement and the movement for marriage equality reached a fever pitch. These comparisons, however, have a longer history. During the five decades after World War II, political ideas about same-sex intimacy and gender…
The Two Revolutions explores how the rise of the internet shaped transgender identity and activism from the 1980s to the present. Through extensive archival research and media archeology, Avery Dame-Griff reconstructs the manifold digital networks of transgender activists, cross-dressing computer…
Histories of gay and lesbian urban life typically focus on major metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York, opportunity-filled destinations for LGBTQ migrants from across the country. Yet there are many other queer communities in economically depressed cities with majority Black and…
Hospital Time is a memoir about friendship, family, and caregiving in the age of AIDS. Amy Hoffman, a writer, lesbian activist, and former editor of Gay Community News, chronicles with fury and unflinching honesty her experience serving as primary caretaker for her friend and colleague, Mike Riegle,…
Through decades of repression – both intentional and unintentional – the powerful story of 20th century queer community-building and activism in this province has remained largely ignored. Until now. Journalist Rhea Rollmann, through extensive interviews, archival work and investigative reporting,…
Beginning in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, a new generation of LGBT students in California began to organize publicly on college and university campuses, inspired by contemporaneous social movements and informed by California’s rich history of LGBT community formation and political…
The story of the early trans athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today’s culture wars.In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark…
Moby-Dick's Ishmael and Queequeg share a bed, Janie in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God imagines her tongue in another woman's mouth. And yet for too long there has not been a volume that provides an account of the breadth and depth of queer American literature. This landmark volume…
In 1960, consensual sodomy was a crime in every state in America. Fifty-five years later, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the fundamental right to marry. In the span of two generations, American law underwent a dramatic transformation. Though the fight for marriage equality has…
Since the 1990s Marc Epprecht has helped lay the groundwork for critical masculinity and African queer studies with such publications as the award-winning Hungochani: The History of a Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa. Here he steps outside of the academic comfort zone with a mix of…
Though today’s LGBTQ people owe a lot to the generations who came before
them, their historical inheritances are not always obvious.
Working with the archives of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical
Society, artist E.G. Crichton decided to do something to bridge this generation
gap.…
Last Call South Florida sweeps aside the glitter and glamour of the Sunshine State’s LGBTQ nightlife scene to reveal the vibrant tapestry of real people who thrived on both sides of the bar. From the harrowing days of bar raids and police arrests to the triumphs of hard-won rights, this book dives…
The women’s suffrage movement, much like many other civil rights movements, has an important and often unrecognized queer history. In Public Faces, Secret Lives Wendy L. Rouse reveals that, contrary to popular belief, the suffrage movement included a variety of individuals who represented a range of…
This comprehensive reference guide tracks the development of the HIV/AIDS pandemic as it occurred in Toronto, Canada, during the years 1981 through 1990. Each entry in the chronology is combined with a brief bibliography of sources. Coverage is selective, and focuses on news reports and articles…