A small number of activists - individuals like Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings - began engaging in small public demonstrations for homosexual equality.īy the late 1960s, the spirit of protest that was rocking the nation reached into the LGBT population.

But few joined, and the organizations made little headway. The names were meant to disguise the purpose of the groups, so that they would not be obvious targets of attack, and so that lesbians and gay men would feel comfortable joining. Having established the reasons why an LGBT movement was needed, Faderman describes the emergence in the 1950s of organizations like the Mattachine Society, the Daughters of Bilitis, and ONE, Inc., all of which started in California. Faderman reports that 'tens of thousands' were fired from their jobs in this era of 'investigation fever.' And she makes these times horrifyingly real by focusing on individuals whose lives were turned upside down by these persecutions. The FBI maintained detailed files on those suspected of homosexuality and, in cities throughout the United States, police routinely invaded gay bars and arrested patrons and employees for being in a house of ill repute. The military engaged in witch hunts that led to the dishonorable discharge of gay, lesbians, and bisexuals.

Mental health professionals categorized homosexuality as a sickness, and many states made it possible to forcibly commit gays and lesbians to institutions for the mentally ill. Very little of it is taught in schools, and except for a key event like the Stonewall Riots, celebrated with pride marches across the country each June, much of it may be unfamiliar, even to LGBT people.įaderman begins her account in the 1940s and 1950s, a period that can justifiably be considered the worst time to be gay. This is what Lillian Faderman sets out to recount in her eminently readable new book, 'The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle.' The author of several well-received accounts of LGBT history and of autobiographical volumes as well, Faderman has devoted her professional career to making this invisible and hidden history accessible to a general public.

The gay revolution by lillian faderman