Before Stonewall : activists for gay and lesbian rights in historical context /

This somewhat uneven collection offers biographical snapshots of gays and lesbians active in various homosexual rights struggles prior to the June 1969 Stonewall Riot and the birth of gay liberation. The strongest entries manage to achieve what the subtitle promises, placing these pre-Stonewall activists in historical context. The less compelling ones simply relate the (short) story of an individual's life, and although certainly underscoring the fact that the personal truly is political, do not further historical inquiry. While acknowledging the tendency to assume that all political activism flows east from California, the book is strangely silent about the lives of individuals who later formed the core of New York's Gay Liberation Front, the first group to understand and act on the revolutionary potential of Stonewall. Also strangely missing, apart from brief mention in two of the biographies, is Craig Rodwell, founder of New York's Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, a singularly important locus of pre-1969 activism in New York. Weaknesses and flaws aside, the book is still worth adding to academic and large public library collections, as it gives voice to gays and lesbians who helped lay the foundation for current sexual liberation movements. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Undergraduate collections and above. E. Broidy University of California, Los Angeles

The 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City, which thrust the struggle for civil rights for homosexuals into the consciousness of North Americans, was so seminal an event that it is easy to forget that it did not occur in a vacuum. Editor Bullough (ed., Encyclopedia of Birth Control; coauthor, Sexual Attitudes) redresses this with a collection of 49 short biographies of activists, written by such authors as Felice Picano, James T. Sears, Wayne R. Dines, and Charley Shively. Included are not just gays, lesbians, and transgendered individuals but such figures as Alfred Kinsey, Evelyn Hooker, and Bullough himself, who, although not themselves gay, worked to reduce the stigma attached to homosexuality. Most of the names, with such exceptions as Kinsey, Allen Ginsberg, Christine Jorgensen, and perhaps Franklin Kameny, are undeservedly obscure. A few of the biographies are uneven or awkwardly brief, but overall they admirably convey the passion and commitment of these men and women. This inspiring chronicle of risk takers and trendsetters (the book's original title) merits a place in all history, gay and lesbian studies, and human sexuality collections.-Richard J. Violette, Special Libs., Victoria, BC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.