Quotes
The book covers such a large span of history, and every page is filled with such important and often surprising information, it is hard to pick only a few excerpts that highlight the book's excellent content.
Quotes about the 1940s and 50s
“The new leadership of the Mattachine group ushered in the ‘homophile’ period of the gay rights movement. For the next ten years, gay organizations would focus largely on integrating into mainstream society and denying their differences in order to gain acceptance – not, as the Mattachine founders had envisioned, to recognize homosexuals as a minority group with its own culture that should demand equal treatment” (64).
“Playing the roles [of butch/femme] was also a protective measure for lesbians – if someone walked in who didn’t look either butch or femme, that woman was often suspected of being an undercover cop who didn’t know any better…Police raids were common, and those arrested often got strip-searched and thrown in jail for a night” (67)
Quotes about the 1960s and 70s
“Things were finally moving along within the homophile movement-and yet, when you put it in perspective, its gains were far behind those of other civil rights movements. Despite growing numbers, gay organizations did not constitute a mass movement – in fact, a mid-1960s study showed that only 2 percent of American homosexuals were even aware that homophile organizations existed” (84)
“In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association finally declared that homosexuality per se was not a mental illness – just about one hundred years after homosexuality was first ‘discovered’ in America” (98)
The National Gay Task Force (1973) was “instrumental in getting the U.S. Civil Service Commission to stop excluding homosexuals from federal employment in 1975, and it helped make gay rights an official priority of the Democratic Party during the 1976 and 1980 national conventions” (101)
Quotes about the 1980s and 90s
On the fight for federal help about AIDS: “Although the CDC had described the disease as an ‘epidemic’ as early as 1981, President Ronald Reagan refused to provide adequate funding for dealing with the disease. In fact, he didn’t even say the word ‘AIDS’ in public until 1986, and his first major speech to mention AIDS was in 1987 –when almost 21,000 people had already died from it” (114)
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was “founded to counter inaccurate and sensationalized coverage of the AIDS crisis, and the organization has since developed into a powerful media watchdog group focused on representations of gender identity and sexual orientation” (126)
Queer Nation “took the antiquated slur of ‘queer’ and reclaimed it as an umbrella term for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered individuals – anyone, even straight people – who wanted to change the way society forced gender or sexual identities on individuals. The organization spread all over the country within days” (128)
The first Gay-Straight Alliances were formed in high schools in the 90s. “In 1990 there were only two GSAs, but today more than 2,500 groups are registered with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the organization that coordinates LGBT History Month (October) and National Day of Silence activities across the nation every year” (137)
Quotes about the 2000s and beyond
"The majority opinion in a case called Lawrence v. Texas ruled that sodomy laws were unconstitutional, and for the first time in history, homosexual activity was legal in all of the United States of America" (145).
"Marriage is...available to same-sex couples in Canada, South Africa, and several European countries, and even more nations have civil partnership laws. The militaries in countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Israel accept, indeed actively recruit, gays and lesbians. These countries remind us Americans that the fight for equality is far from over, and a brighter, fairer future is within reach" (original italics, 150).
Quotes about the 1940s and 50s
“The new leadership of the Mattachine group ushered in the ‘homophile’ period of the gay rights movement. For the next ten years, gay organizations would focus largely on integrating into mainstream society and denying their differences in order to gain acceptance – not, as the Mattachine founders had envisioned, to recognize homosexuals as a minority group with its own culture that should demand equal treatment” (64).
“Playing the roles [of butch/femme] was also a protective measure for lesbians – if someone walked in who didn’t look either butch or femme, that woman was often suspected of being an undercover cop who didn’t know any better…Police raids were common, and those arrested often got strip-searched and thrown in jail for a night” (67)
Quotes about the 1960s and 70s
“Things were finally moving along within the homophile movement-and yet, when you put it in perspective, its gains were far behind those of other civil rights movements. Despite growing numbers, gay organizations did not constitute a mass movement – in fact, a mid-1960s study showed that only 2 percent of American homosexuals were even aware that homophile organizations existed” (84)
“In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association finally declared that homosexuality per se was not a mental illness – just about one hundred years after homosexuality was first ‘discovered’ in America” (98)
The National Gay Task Force (1973) was “instrumental in getting the U.S. Civil Service Commission to stop excluding homosexuals from federal employment in 1975, and it helped make gay rights an official priority of the Democratic Party during the 1976 and 1980 national conventions” (101)
Quotes about the 1980s and 90s
On the fight for federal help about AIDS: “Although the CDC had described the disease as an ‘epidemic’ as early as 1981, President Ronald Reagan refused to provide adequate funding for dealing with the disease. In fact, he didn’t even say the word ‘AIDS’ in public until 1986, and his first major speech to mention AIDS was in 1987 –when almost 21,000 people had already died from it” (114)
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was “founded to counter inaccurate and sensationalized coverage of the AIDS crisis, and the organization has since developed into a powerful media watchdog group focused on representations of gender identity and sexual orientation” (126)
Queer Nation “took the antiquated slur of ‘queer’ and reclaimed it as an umbrella term for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered individuals – anyone, even straight people – who wanted to change the way society forced gender or sexual identities on individuals. The organization spread all over the country within days” (128)
The first Gay-Straight Alliances were formed in high schools in the 90s. “In 1990 there were only two GSAs, but today more than 2,500 groups are registered with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the organization that coordinates LGBT History Month (October) and National Day of Silence activities across the nation every year” (137)
Quotes about the 2000s and beyond
"The majority opinion in a case called Lawrence v. Texas ruled that sodomy laws were unconstitutional, and for the first time in history, homosexual activity was legal in all of the United States of America" (145).
"Marriage is...available to same-sex couples in Canada, South Africa, and several European countries, and even more nations have civil partnership laws. The militaries in countries such as Canada, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Israel accept, indeed actively recruit, gays and lesbians. These countries remind us Americans that the fight for equality is far from over, and a brighter, fairer future is within reach" (original italics, 150).