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Lillian Faderman Tells the Gay Story to Date AUTHOR’S PROFILE Lillian Faderman Tells the Gay Story to Date MARY MERIAM ment in the courts or got elected to public focused on a particular period, or a particu- office so they could fix those injustices. lar aspect of our history, or a particular city ISTORIAN Lillian Faderman is an I think the biggest challenge has been to in which that history happened. I wanted to LGBT culture hero who has won sev- make this a book that tells the story of the write a sweeping history: one that began in Heral lifetime achievement awards for whole struggle—not just as it was fought on the mid-20th century, when things were as her groundbreaking scholarship in LGBT the East and West Coasts, not just as it was bad as could be, and went all the way up to history. Her most recent books are Gay L.A. fought by radicals or by mainstreamers, or the present, when the president of the United (2006), co-authored with Stuart Timmons, by gay men or white people; but the story of States supports us publicly, and the laws that and two memoirs, Naked in the Promised how an incredibly diverse group of individu- made our lives miserable are being struck Land (2003) and My Mother’s Wars.Twoof als—who often had little in common but down all over the country. her earlier books, Surpassing the Love of sexual orientation or gender identity—man- I wrote this book for the same reason I Men (1981) and Odd Girls and Twilight aged to bring about the remarkable changes generally write a book: I’m interested in Lovers (1991), were named “Notable Books that transformed us from pariah status to a finding the answer to a question. In this of the Year” by The New York Times. status that finally begins to approach first- case, it’s the question I ask at the beginning Faderman has outdone herself in her new class American citizenship. of the book. First I present the story of a book of history, The Gay Revolution: The much-loved professor at the University of Story of the Struggle, just published by MM: Why do you call the book the “gay” Missouri who was brutally shamed and fired Simon & Schuster. The book tells the story revolution? from his job in 1948 after being accused of of the past 65 years of our “gay revolution,” LF: It was a challenge to settle on a histori- sodomy, and then I present the story of a starting in the 1950s and bringing it right up cally valid adjective. I was able to trace the woman in 2012 who was promoted to to breaking news in May of this year. In ad- popular underground use of the word “gay” brigadier general in a public ceremony in dition to extensive archival research, she for a diverse community way back to the be- which her wife pinned the general’s star on conducted 150 interviews to produce an ginning of the 20th century. For example, her epaulet. The question is: how did Amer- 800-page book that’s undoubtedly the most Gertrude Stein used “gay” to describe les- ica change from a country in which Profes- complete and authoritative of its kind sor E. K. Johnston was destroyed ever published. because of his sexuality to one in I interviewed Lillian Faderman by which General Tammy Smith’s sexu- phone and e-mail in June. ality is considered irrelevant by the Department of Defense? The story of Mary Meriam: How many years did that transformation is what the book is it take to write The Gay Revolution about. and what was the biggest challenge? Lillian Faderman: It feels like this MM: Is the “gay revolution” over? has been my life’s work. I’ve been LF: Despite all the victories we’ve collecting material on our history had in recent years, there’s still work since the 1970s, and I mined a lot of it to be done. In the mid-1970s, Con- for my other books. But for this book gressmembers Bella Abzug and Ed I wanted to present history as personal Koch tried twice to get a sweeping stories and group stories that would federal gay rights bill passed, but they show the drama of the hard-fought battles bians in her 1908 story, “Miss Furr and Miss couldn’t get traction. Senator Ted Kennedy for LGBT civil rights. So over a period of Skeene.” Up to the 1970s, when lesbian fem- tried in vain for decades to get ENDA—the four years, I spent a lot of time in archives, inists reclaimed the word “lesbian,” and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act— finding letters and all sorts of documents 1990s, when trans people began describing passed, but we still don’t have a federal law. that told important stories that hadn’t been themselves as “transgender” and young peo- And the Right continues to invent outra- told before. And I interviewed more than ple began calling themselves “queer,” “gay” geous ploys, such as the so-called “Reli- 150 people. Some of them had been leaders was the preferred underground term for all of gious Freedom Restoration Act” that would, in the various movements—homophile, gay, us who were sexual or gender “outlaws.” for example, allow wedding-cake bakers or lesbian-feminist, gay-and-lesbian, LGBT, The world outside called us “homosexual” or gown-makers to refuse service for a same- and so on; and some had just lived through “invert” or “lesbian” or “queer” (all terms sex wedding if their religion frowned on the history and had revealing and riveting that were meant as insults), but “gay” was such unions. Fortunately, there was such an personal stories to tell. So, for example, I in- the word most of us used among ourselves. uproar in Indiana and Arkansas last spring terviewed people who in the mid-20th cen- LGBT is a relatively recent term—and now when their legislators passed such laws that tury had been committed to mental it’s becoming dated in favor of LGBTQ or the two states’ governors had to back down. institutions and given shock therapy or had LGBTQQIAAP, or even no term at all to express But just as the Right will keep trying to hurt been hounded out of their jobs because they sexual or gender “fluidity.” us, we’ll keep fighting them—and as polls were homosexual. I interviewed people who are showing, we no longer have to fight helped start homophile organizations to MM: How is The Gay Revolution different alone. The majority of America seems to begin to fight back against such treatment. I from other LGBT history books, and why have come over to our side. interviewed people who rioted or staged did you write it? zaps to protest injustices to the LGBT com- LF: I think there have been many wonderful Mary Meriam’s latest book is Lady of the munity, and people who fought the govern- LGBT history books, but most of them have Moon. September–October 2015 23.
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