Recommended Readings for LGBT Rights

by Michael A. Jones

Published October 05, 2008 @ 10:14PM PT

From queer studies to politics, from HIV/AIDS to coming out, the list of LGBT books, articles and blog postings available today could fill a college library (or an entire gmail account!), and then some. Though by no means comprehensive, below is a list of recommended readings from the world of print and online that every LGBT rights supporter should know.

BOOKS (non-fiction)

And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic (1987) By Randy Shilts

Perhaps no other piece of writing captures the narrative of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the United States like Shilts’s investigation of the start and spread of the virus. From widespread political indifference in the U.S. government, to dissension within the gay rights movement over how to deal with the “gay plague,” to doctors and public health officials often at odds with each other and their own egos, Shilts’s work chronicles the chaos and systemic failures that comprise the first half decade of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Shilts died of complications from HIV/AIDS in 1994. After his death, prominent LGBT rights activist Larry Kramer said Shilts, in writing And the Band Played On, “Single-handedly probably did more to educate the world about AIDS than any single person.”

Making Gay History: The Half Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights (2002) By Eric Marcus

This oral history of the progression of the gay rights movement in the Untied States makes Marcus the “Studs Terkel” of LGBT rights. Using interviews with more than 60 people – from pioneering psychologist Dr. Evelyn Hooker to Ellen DeGeneres – Marcus weaves together a rich, complex and personal history of gay rights from the 1950s to the start of the 21^st century. This is an evolutionary tale that shows the birth and longevity of gay rights in the United States, and the major (and minor) players that have shaped the movement.

Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context (2002) By Vern Bullough

AND

Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution (2004) By David Carter

Both of these books compliment one another as a “before and after” history of the Stonewall Riots, the seminal historical event that saw LGBT citizens retaliate against a police raid on a gay bar in Greenwich Village, and is considered by many to have thrust LGBT rights into the public sphere. Before Stonewall looks at the struggle for gay rights before the 1969 riots, drawing on 49 short biographies of LGBT persons and straight allies who were leaders in the early struggle for gay rights. Carter’s Stonewall, meanwhile, paints a vivid picture of the buildup to the riots, offers an hour-by-hour synopsis of what actually occurred during the weeklong resistance, and uses the riots as a launching pad to describe the birth of the modern gay rights movement. Both books map the mother and father figures of LGBT rights over the course of several decades, and are valuable contributions to gay history and lessons in organizing.

GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens (2003) By Kelly Huegel

It’s nearly impossible to narrow down the best book on the process of coming out as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Huegel’s guide, however, is a must read for anyone looking for guidance on how to come out of the closet, or for straight allies (or those wrestling with GLBTQ issues) wanting more information on what it means to have a loved one who identifies as GLBTQ. With chapters on homophobia, religion and culture, sex, transgender issues and more, Huegel presents a thorough resource guide for young adults that the American Library Association as hailed as “One of the best one-volume sources of information available about being GLBTQ.”

The Girls Next Door: Into the Heart of Lesbian America (1996) By Lindsy Van Gelder and Pamela Robin Brandt

This witty and entertaining look at lesbian America in the 1990s draws on over 100 interviews to provide an overview of the lesbian political, cultural and social scene of the decade. From hanging out at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, to attending the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s Nabsico Dinah Shore Golf Tournament, to visiting lesbians at their homes and workplaces, Van Gelder and Brandt weave an intimate story of a Lesbian America that wants to shed its invisibility, and push for greater acceptance within a straight and gay-male dominated culture.

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

What’s Their Real Problem With Gay Marriage? (Hint: It’s the Gay Part) (2005)

By Russell Shorto, New York Times Magazine

A profile of evangelical opposition to gay marriage, and the grassroots network of Christian activists working on the issue. “Gay marriage is the new abortion,” is just one of the many quotes unearthed by Shorto in his interviews with influential evangelical leaders. The article also discusses religious opposition to teaching sexual orientation in schools. But the crux of the piece thoroughly details why opponents of gay marriage in the evangelical world don’t see the issue of marriage as a matter of civil rights. As Shorto writes, “At its essence, then, the Christian conservative thinking about gay marriage runs this way. Homosexuality is not an innate, biological condition but a disease in society. Marriage is the healthy root of society. To put the two together is thus willfully to introduce disease to that root. It is society willing self-destruction, which is itself a symptom of a wider societal disease, that of secularism.”

Queer Inc.: How Corporate America Fell in Love with Gays and Lesbians (2006)

By Marc Gunther, Fortune Magazine

How can booming business at Raytheon, the multi-billion dollar defense contractor that sells Tomahawk missiles and laser-vision goggles, be good for the gay rights movement? As Gunther explains, Raytheon is juts one of many major corporations making gay rights an issue in the workplace. Because companies are concerned about hiring and retaining quality employees (as is the case with Raytheon), as well as about LGBT customers who spend billions of dollars a year (as is the case with most major retail outfits), Gunther describes major corporate efforts to attract the LGBT community. “The changes in attitude toward gays and lesbians has been swift, deep, and remarkable,” Gunther writes about corporate America. “People who were once shunned and then merely tolerated are today being embraced by corporate America.”

The Battle Over Gay Teens (2005)

By John Cloud, Time Magazine

John Cloud’s article has been assailed by all sides of the political spectrum. LGBT activists have argued that he gives credence (and a soapbox) to hardline anti-gay groups worried about the spread of homosexuality among teens. Anti-gay groups, meanwhile, argue that Cloud paints gay adolescents as normal and natural individuals. Whatever side you, the reader, fall on, it’s clear that Cloud’s coverage of LGBT young people struck a chord. As Cloud writes, “The average gay person now comes out just before or after graduating high school,” meaning that there’s a large LGBT adolescent population existing under the fray of mainstream LGBT groups and established anti-gay groups.

It’s Not a Gay Thing (2008)

By Nancy D. Polikoff, Utne Reader

An important new twist on the marriage debate in the United States. Polikoff’s article is part of a larger series on rethinking marriage. As she puts it, same-sex marriage is not the most contested issue in contemporary family policy, but rather “he most contested issue in contemporary family policy is whether married-couple families should have ‘special rights’ not available to other family forms.” Polikoff proposes family law reform that would recognize the worth of all families equally. Unmarried couples of any sexual orientation, single-parent households, and extended family units do not conform to the one-size-fits-all definition of marriage in the U.S., and are unjustly burdened the same, Polikoff writes. Per Polikoff: “No other Western country, including those that allow same-sex couples to marry, creates the rigid dividing line between the law for the married and the law for the unmarried that exists in the United States.”

Mutual Grace (2006)

By Amy McDougall and Jake Nyberg, Sojourners

LGBT rights and religion are often thought to go together like oil and water. But McDougall’s and Nyberg’s article shows the promise and potential of dialogue on LGBT rights at religious institutions, in this case, evangelical colleges. A profile on the Equality Ride, a multi-state campus bike ride organized by gay Christian group Soulforce, the article describes the interactions between the pro-gay bike riders, and the students and college officials at numerous schools. “Prior to the visit, our students thought about homosexuality as a moral abstraction, but now they’re thinking about it in terms of real people,” recalled Stanton Jones, Provost of Wheaton College, in the article. As McDougall and Nyberg suggest, this mode of dialogue could well become the future of the evangelical church.

BLOGS

Towleroad

Whether he’s blogging about the latest LGBT rights rally in Hungary, reporting live from the Democratic National Convention, or posting the latest “sportrait” of Michael Phelps, Andy Towle’s “Towleroad” has become one of the hottest blogs, especially for gay men. His news and political coverage has increased dramatically in the past year, from interviewing Terry Bean, the founder of LGBT for Obama, to covering a mob of 2,000 stoning gay men in Jamaica.

Queerty

It bills itself as free of an agenda, except that gay one. Queerty is, by all accounts, exclusively gay, covering news, entertainment, politics, music, and more. If it’s news that New Zealand schools will start allowing same-sex dates at the prom, or an analysis of why Vice Presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin is soft of LGBT rights, Queerty will cover it.

Pam’s House Blend

Pam Spaulding, founder of Pam’s House Blend, describes the blog as being about community, civility and friendly debate. Since July 2004, Pam’s site has been just that and has become one of the leading sites for LGBT issues and commentary. From the Blend’s remembrance of LGBT activist Del Martin (who along with her partner, Phyllis Lyon, became the first same-sex couple married in California), to commentary on landmark Congressional hearings debating transgender discrimination, Pam’s House Blend is always at the fore of cutting-edge LGBT issues. It’s moniker: “An online magazine in the reality-based community.” Amen.

En / Gender

Written by Helen Boyd, the wife of a transgender woman, En/Gender covers a range of trans issues from the political to the personal. Boyd also includes a section on the blog for “Allies, Family and Partners,” as well as a “five questions” series with “people she finds interesting,” and a range of other subcategories. Boyd’s pieces range from a discussion of the “transgender umbrella” (an excellent piece on what it means to define oneself as transgender), to an analysis of the significance of having a transgender contestant on “America’s Next Top Model.” Good stuff no matter where one falls on the L-G-B-T landscape, or for straight allies and friends.

Out Front Blog

Offering up the “full spectrum of gay and lesbian communication,” Out Front Blog provides readers with high-level analysis on all things LGBT. It is excellent reporting, with a cast of contributors and alumni from across the LGBT political spectrum. Posts worth checking out, both for their insight and their creativity, include this look at Latina/o LGBT citizens seeking asylum in the United States, to the concept of “prevention fatigue” in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness.