A good survey of gay life. The emphasis is on the USA and mostly from 1869 until the election of President Bill Clinton. The great value of the book is its ease of reading. The reader is introduced to many champions of the quest for human equity of men and women drawn to their own sex for social fulfillment. It is a big book and written in a scholarly way. It is a history of people from their own vantage point. The book takes sides. The feelings of the gay community in all its contradictions and confusions are recounted. One gets the good, the bad and the really not a great idea but told from within the 'movement.' There is an extensive index, notes and bibliography. There is a wealth of useful information to help find more history of an ignored and marginalized group of humans.

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