e h Committeet on Gay and Lesbian History SpringSpring 2007 VVolumeolume 21, IssuIssuee 1 In This Issue CLGH Chair’s Column Karen C. Krahuli 1 Chair’s Column k Karen C. Krahulik Greetings, friends and colleagues. First on my 2 Publications and Presentations by Members agenda is to thank all of you who supported the

4 Special Section: Museums and Archives CLGH at the AHA conference in Atlanta. We had a delightful trip on Friday evening to the Bell Tower 6 John Boswell Prize announcement of the Historical Oakland Cemetery, where Kevin 6 Call for Submissions for 2008 CLGH Prizes Kuharic (Restoration and Landscape Manager) alerted us to the socioeconomic histories of the 7 Governing Board Nominations cemetery before Jodie Talley (graduate student at 8 Reviews Georgia State) fi lled us in on its queer inhabitants, William Bennemann, Male-Male Intimacy in markers and visitors. The CLGH’s Saturday evening Early America: Beyond Romantic Friendships reception at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History similarly Thomas A. Foster, Sex and the Eighteenth- was successful. Before a sizeable group, Kerrie Century Man: Massachusetts and the History of Cotton Williams (AARL Archivist, Ph.D. NYU), William Sexuality in America Holden (Emory LGBT Studies Librarian) and others Reviewed by William Pencak welcomed us to Atlanta and invited us to investigate E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson (eds.) their burgeoning archival collections. Wesley J. Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology Chenault (Archivist at the Kenan Research Center/ Reviewed by Eric Ledell Smith Atlanta History Center), was critical in both the David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked planning and implementation of these events; he the Gay Revolution was also a delightful host for the CLGH in Atlanta. Reviewed by Susan Freeman The popularity of our evening social events Steven Cohan, Incongruous Entertainment: stemmed, I believe, from the intellectual energy Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical that was produced during the conference itself. The Reviewed by James W. Jones CLGH co-sponsored fi ve sessions plus had a number Paul Jackson, One of The Boys:Boys: HomoseHomosexualityxuality of members participating on non-CLGH panels. Once in the Military during World War II I learned who these people were and when/where Reviewed by Stephen J. Stillwell, Jr., their panels were taking place, I encouraged others to attend. But for future AHA meetings, if you are Gayatri Reddy,y, With Respect to Sex: Negotiating delivering a paper related to the history of sexuality, Hijra Identity in South India please ask your panel organizer to consider a CLGH Reviewed by Linda Heidenreich co-sponsorship. If co-sponsored by us, your panel will Erica Rand, The Ellis Island Snow Globe be listed in the program with other CLGH-related Reviewed by Karen C. Krahulik sessions and events (leading to increases in interest, Henry Abelove, Deep Gossip. audience members and knowledge about the scope Reviewed by Tirza True Latimer of lgbtq work in history).

20 Ballot Finally, although the CLGH Business Meeting was poorly attended to say the least (it seems members CLGH were much more interested in the intellectual and Chair: social events, understandably), we were able to move Karen C. Krahulik, [email protected] forward on several business agenda items. Many Book Review Editor: of these items you will see in ballot form either in Ian Lekus, [email protected] this newsletter issue or in the fall. Our esteemed treasurer, James Rosenheim, reported a defi cit in our Newsletter Editor: Kevin P. Murphy, [email protected] annual operating budget. After comparing CLGH Continued on Page 2 dues with those of our peer affi liate societies, he Coleman, Jonathan. The Gay Gods: Homosexuality in proposed to raise and modify our dues structure. Greco-Roman Myth; We Have to Hang Someone: The The defi cit is due, in part, to increased costs for Execution of Ellison Mounts. the newsletter and AHA reservations as well as decreases in income from annual membership dues. Conerly, Gregory. Encyclopedia of American Lesbian, To address this and other membership issues, I am Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History and Culture. proposing to amend the bylaws so that the CLGH Ed. Marc Stein, Charles Scribner’s and Sons (2004). can add the position of Secretary. The Secretary Wrote following entries: “African American LGBTQ will oversee our membership database and will Organizations and Periodicals” (Volume 1, pp. 146- take proactive measures to collect annual dues 147), “Mel Boozer” (Volume 1, pp. 150-151), “Third and to increase the membership-at-large. Many World Gay Revolution” (Volume III, pp. 185-187).; “An of our peer affi liates have a similar position (see Open Mind, a Clean Heart, and One Dollar Please!’: affi liates list via the AHA website). Please vote on Bejeweled Messiahs, Queer Consumerism, and Post- the dues modifi cation and on the amendment to World War II Black Urban Religious Culture” Cultural the bylaws in this issue. In the Fall 2007 issue, we Studies Association – Tucson, AZ (April 2005) (the Governing Board, the Newsletter Editor, and the Book Review Editor) will propose two important Dinshaw, Carolyn. “The History of GLQ, Volume 1,” name changes: one for the CLGH and one for the GLQ 12:1 (2006):5-26; “Touching on the Past,” in M. Newsletter. We are in the process now of gathering Kuefl er, ed., The Boswell Thesis, pp. 57-73. feedback, and I will begin a listserv conversation on name changes in advance of the Fall 2007 ballot. Elash, Daniel Frontino. “Not one Man In America Until then, my very best wishes to you all. Believed Him.” On the Historical Misunderstanding of John Adams, with an Apologia. Ex Post Facto XV, 2006. PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS BY MEMBERS Francikova, Dasa. Midwest Slavic Converence, OSU, Ohio State “Roles and Images of Women in the Czeck Baxter, Randolph W. “ ‘Aren’t We A Couple?’ A National Movement in the Decade before the 1848 Historical Comparison of Slave Marriages and Revolution: Complicated and Confusing Matters,” Same-Sex Marriages,” in Mark Strasser, Traci C. 2006; “`My Dear Only One’: Rethinking Bozena West, Martin Dupuis & William A. Thompson, eds., Nemcova’s friendships with women.” Translated Defending Same-Sex Marriage, 3 vols. (Westport, from English to Russian. In Gender History in CT.: Greenwood, forthcoming Sept. 2006).; “Butch vs. Eastern Europe. Edited by Elena Gapova, Almira Femme During the Early Cold War: Deconstructing Ousmanova and Andrea Peto, 170-176. EHU, Minsk, Hyper-Masculine Ideologies. Review of Robert D. 200.; “Female Friends in Nineteenth-Century Dean’s Imperial Brotherhood and David K. Johnson’s Bohemia: Troubles with Affectionate Writing and The Lavender Scare,” Peace & Change: A Journal of ‘Patriotic Relationships.’” Journal of Women’s History Peace Research [Special Issue: Queer Studies Meets 12, no.3 (Autumn, 2000): 23-28.; Regional Seminar on Peace Studies] 30, 4 (Fall 2005): 540-47. Gender and Culture (Program on Gender and Culture, Central European University, Budapest), “`My Dear Bearden, Joshua. M.A. Thesis: “’Can’t I make use of Only One’: Rethinking Bozena Nemcova’s friendships my own Body”: A Revisionist Approach to Sodimy with women.” October, 1999 – October, 2000.; Trials in London, 1700-1785.” International Conference Writing Women’s History and History of Gender in Countries of Transition, Buckridge, Ph.D., Steeve O. The Language of Dress: Minsk, Belarus, “`My Dear Only One’: Rethinking Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica, 1790- Bozena Nemcova’s Friendships with Women, “1999. 1890 (Kingston: the University of the West Indies Press, 2004). Friedman, Andrea. “The Smearing of Joe McCarthy: Charles, Douglas M. “The FBI, the Mattachine Society, The Lavender Scare, Gossip, and Cold War Politics” and One, Inc.: Gay Subversion in the 1950s,” OAH appeared in American Quarterly 57, 4 (December annual meeting, Washington, DC, 23 April 2006. 2005): 1105-29.

Spring 2007 2 Giles, Geoffrey J. (Chapters in books) “A Latimer, Tirza. “Imagining Community: Rober Giard’s homoszexualisok naci uldozese a megszallt [please note the spelling] Vision” for an exhibition orszagokban,” [The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals catalogue titled The Photography of Robert Giard, in Occupied Countries] in Judit Molnar (Ed.), A published by Jonathan Edwards College, Yale Holokauszt Magyarorszagon Europai Perspektivaban University (2006). (Budapest: Balassi Kiado, 2005), pp. 412-430.; A Gray Zone Among the Field Gray Men: Confusion Millan, Isabel. Review of The Night is Young: in the Discrimination Against Homosexuals in the Secuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS by Hector Wehrmacht,” in Jonathan Petropoulos & John K Carrillo for CLGH. (forthcoming) Roth, Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath (New York: Berghahn, Miller, Heather Lee. “‘If they ever legalize work . . 2005), pp. 127-146.; “The Denial of Homosexuality: . I’m in trouble’: Tools and Tricks of the Sex Trade Same-Sex Incidents in Himmler’s SS and Police,” in in the Late-Twentieth-Century United States.” Dagmar Herzog (Ed.), Sexuality and German Fascism April 2006, Organization of American Historians (New York: Berghahn, 2005), pp. 256-290.; “Drinking Conference, Washington, D.C.; “Natural and Political: and Crime in Modern Germany,” in Peter Becker & Nudity in the National Parks.” March 2006, American Richard F. Wetzell, Criminals and Their scientists: The Society for Environmental History Conference, St. History of Criminology in International Perspective Paul, Minnesota.; “The ‘Thrills’ and ‘Tinglings’ of (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. Sex Work: Fact or Fantasy?” June 2005, Berkshire 471-485.; (Articles) “Legislating Homophobia in Conference on the History of Women, Scripps the Third Reich: The Radicalization of Prosecution College, Claremont, California. Against Homosexuality by the Legal Profession,” German History, 23, 3, 2005, pp. 339-354. Morris, Bonnie J. “Valuing Women-Only Spaces,” in Feminist STudies, v. 31, n. 3; “Negotiating Lesbian Helquist, Michael. “Lesbian to the Rescue: Dr. Marie Worlds: The Festival Communities,” in Journal of Equi and the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Relief,” Lesbian Studies, v. 9, n. 1/2 a review of the role the early 20th century lesbian Nilsson, Arne (2006): “Såna” på amerikabåtarna. physician and radical activist in the aftermath of Om de svenska amerikabåtarna som manliga the San Francisco natural disaster 100 years ago. homomiljöer. Stockholm: Normal. (In English: Men Presented by Michael Helquist. Sponsored by the “like that” on transatlantic liners: the Swedish San Francisco Public Library and the Gay, Lesbian, American Line as gay male working places and labor Bisexual Transgender Historical Society. April 11, market). 2006. ; “KAJ Mackenzie, Marie Equi and the Oregon Doctor Train: Portland’s Response to the 1906 San Potter, Claire B. Queer Hoover: Sex, Lies & Political Francisco Earthquake.” Michael Helquist, presentor. History (forthcoming in Journal of History of Sponsored by the Oregon Health and Science Sexuality.) University (OHSU) History of Medicine Society, Portland, Oregon, May 12, 2006. Retzloff, Tim. Senior Honors Thesis, University of Michigan: “’Just Unheard of’: Suburbanization and Kennedy, Hubert. Reading Gay History: Selected the Shaping of Lesbian and Gay Communities in Essays and Reviews (print edition available on: lulu. Metro Detroit” com). Rupp, Leila J. “Everyone’s Queer,” OAH Magazine of Koskovich, Gerard. “The ‘Modest Collection’ of Bud History, March 2006; with Ucita Taylor, “Becoming Flounders: How 5,400 Gay Novels Came to Green the Professors of Lesbian Love,” Journal of Lesbian Library,” Imprint (journal of the Associates of the Studies 9:4 (2005). Stanford University Libraries), vol. 24, no. 4 (fall 2005): pp. 24-32.; “Gay Concentration Camp Survivor Senelick, Laurence. “Mikhail Artsybashev,” “Jean Pierre Seel Dies,” Bay Area Reporter (Dec. 15, 2005): Lorrain,” “Celeste Mogador,” “Leo Taxil,” “Theatre p. 21. Online at www.ebar.com/obituaries/index. erotique de las rue de Sante,” in Encyclopedia of php?id=73. Erotic Literature (Routledge).

3 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History Solomon, Jeff. “Young, Effeminate, and Strange: Early The dual approach of the Schwules Museum Photographic Portraits of Truman Capote,” Studies in combines biographical inquiry with everyday- Gender and Sexuality 6 (3), Fall 2005.; “Monster and cultural history. We maintain intensive contacts with Critic, Teacher and Writer: A Roundtable Discussion individuals who remember certain historical periods on Difference, Fear, and Creation.” By Greg Bills, and furnish us not only with fi rst-hand information Vicki Forman, Michelle Latiolais, and Elisabeth but frequently also with private documents or Sheffi eld. Ed. Jeff Solomon. Santa Monica Review 17 even entire collections. Thanks to the museum’s (2), Fall 2005.; collection of works of art and photography, it is Papers: “Homosexuality Has No Humanist Value: possible to outline the visual codes used to articulate Truman Capote, the Trillings, and Hitler,” NEMLA homosexual subject-matter in various historical 2006.; “Young, Effeminate, and Strange: Author periods. Photos of Young Truman Capote,” In December 2004, the permanent show “Self- Modernist Studies Association Conference, 2005. Confi dence and Persistence. Two Hundred Years of History ” took up residence on a separate Verstraete, Beert. Latin, Greek, various classical museum fl oor, accompanied by the appearance civilization courses (teaching); gender and sexuality of a publication with the same title. The fl exible in the Greece-Roman world, the classical tradition in exhibition concept sends visitors round 55 display the west with Vernon Provencal (co-ed.); Same-Sex units with integrated partition walls allowing Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the presentation of topical research fi ndings and the classical tradition of the West (Harrington Park recent additions to the collection. The opening of Press, 2006). the permanent exhibition fi rmly established the Schwules Museum within the museum landscape of Berlin. Special Section: Museums and Archives In regard to its future development, the museum intends to intensify cooperative projects with Schwules Museum, Berlin women, and also to increase its focus on GLBTQ Karl-Heinz Steinle themes. A country-specifi c series of temporary exhibitions currently in development is due to open The Schwules Museum – the “Gay Museum” that in fall 2008 with a show relating to African art. was the world’s fi rst institution of its kind – was In order to encourage young curators, a separate founded in 1985 by students of history, art history exhibition space is being set up as a platform and sociology. Dedicated to the goal of exploring open to new questions and innovative forms of the various manifestations of homosexual life and communicating content. We hope that the resultant collecting and putting on display related materials, dialogue will bring impulses and inspiration for the museum is funded exclusively by private donors future museum projects, and at the same time and supported by the registered association “Verein attract the involvement of young historians and art der Freunde eines Schwulen Museums in Berlin”. All educationists. The project was launched in summer revenues come from admission, membership fees, 2006 with “Intimate Spaces,” a series for which two sales of books and pictures, as well as donations. A young curators from Berlin and New York invited team of 30 staff, for the most part volunteers, are ten international artists to evolve their own Live currently involved in the museum’s exhibition and Art concepts with visitor participation during the archival activities. museum’s regular opening hours. The Schwules Museum has staged 100 exhibitions The museum intends to complete by the end of to date, and brought out 25 publications. In addition 2007 its acquisition of the Sternweiler Collection, to major projects like “Goodbye to Berlin? 100 Years one of the most internationally noted private of the Gay Movement” (1997),“The Persecution of collections relating to homosexual cultural history. Homosexual Men in Berlin” (2000) and the many The collection comprises 7,000 separate items or exhibitions mounted by guest curators, the museum groups, among them many unique engravings has developed themed series of exhibitions relating and paintings testifying to the depiction of to individual biographies, to homosexual groups in homosexuality in artworks produced between 1500 the 1950s and ’60s, and presented homages to movie and 1950, and also entire estates including that of stars, writers or intellectuals enjoying idol status the artist Richard Grune, whose work deals with his among homosexuals.

Spring 2007 4 incarceration in prisons and concentration camps in behind walls owned by and controlled by the Leather the period 1935-45. Grune’s legacy further includes community.”1 That this community project emerged a valuable historical discovery, namely the private in Chicago was not a random occurrence; with a correspondence he conducted from a concentration known past for embracing leather communities of camp. “Male – Female,” an exhibition opening in various sexual orientations and practices as well as a summer 2007, will highlight a further focal point of tactical location in mid-America, a Chicago residence the Sternweiler Collection by showing two hundred for LA&M maximizes accessibility for leatherfolk photographic works relating to the developmental from all over the United States. history of nude photography in Germany and the Most of LA&M’s collection consists of US-based USA between 1870 and 1960. artifacts, though international donors or artifacts More information on the Schwules Museum is acquired from international tourism are never available at www.schwulesmuseum.de; turned away. In fact, no donations are ever turned please address all e-mail to down. LA&M’s acceptance and preservation of [email protected]. anything and everything kink and leather is one of the defi ning distinctions between them and other museums that preserve and display sexual history. LA&M, like the Lesbian Herstory Archives Leather Archives & Museum, Chicago Illinois in Brooklyn and the GLBT Historical Society in Jennifer Tyburczy, San Francisco, collects artifacts from the everyday Department of Performance Studies, life experiences of BLGT people (heterosexual, or Northwestern University pansexual, practitioners are also represented in LA&M). It does so, however, with the intention of What could it mean to collect and exhibit alternative publicly sharing its collections in the museum, at sexual histories? What could it mean for public leather events throughout the country, and through history projects? For queer sexual politics? For artistic and sexually practical on-site gatherings. creating institutional spaces for remembering queer Focused attention to issues of love, sex, (alternative) eroticism? The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) sexuality, eroticism, and queer community raises all of these questions. formation also contributes to LA&M’s unique status With its slogan, “Located in Chicago and serving as a museum, an archive, and a research institution. the world,” LA&M positions itself as the national While the majority of the erotic artifacts in LA&M’s home for the memories and histories of leather/levi collection depict gay white male bodies, LA&M culture. Started by Chuck Renslow in 1991 in a small collects, preserves, and exhibits the sexual histories Clark Street storefront near the leatherbar, The Eagle, of women, people of color, and transgender kinksters LA&M assumed its new abode on 6418 N. Greenview as well. Recently, LA&M (with the guidance in 1999. It now offers eight publicly accessible gallery of exhibit curator Alex Warner) put together a spaces, a 1,425 sq. foot archive, a 164-seat auditorium, revamped “Women of Leather” traveling Exhibit. and a 600 sq. foot library for the preservation and Recently archivalist Chuck M. found and dated a study of leather history. leather sword sheath (1840s), one of LA&M’s oldest LA&M is almost completely funded, run, and artifacts, which was probably and violently applied maintained by those in the leather/kink community to the bodies of black slaves on a nineteenth-century in and around Chicago. The collaborative efforts of plantation. Using the leather sheath as a centerpiece, LA&M’s 300+ members and volunteers, its status Chuck M mounted an exhibit that pedagogically as a tax-exempt charity under section 501c(3) of the engages the distinction between consensual erotic federal tax code, and the vigorous fund-raising and play and nonconsensual torture. administrative skills of past and present directors As a public history project and homage to the people like Joseph Bean (1997) and Rick Storer (current) and practices of kink, BDSM, fetish, and leather eventually enabled the administrative team to cultures, LA&M provides visitors and researchers offi cially retire the mortgage on the Greenview with a rare opportunity to experience a venue in building in 2005. which queerness and institutional display space Not surprisingly, no government aid was received to intersect. While queer history continues to be purchase the building. “This has been a grassroots marginalized within the museum and academic fundraising effort since day one,” said LA&M world, queer sexual history, particularly when President Chuck Renslow. “Our history is now safe it incorporates alternative sexuality practice, 5 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History encounters even greater obstacles for establishing and magazines that circulated broadly and help legitimate and respected cultural spaces. “It is during forge a sense of large community and eventually times of great social stress,” Gayle Rubin reminds of its political possibilities. In sum, this book us that, “sexuality should be treated with special marvelously charts the connections among desire, respect.”2 Leaning on the civic and pedagogical ethos identity, and community.” of the museum as a genre of spatial aesthetics and The 2007 Prize Committee was chaired by Ramon historical value, the placement of sex in a museum Gutierrez and included Jennifer Evans and Daniel demonstrates the effort to do exactly that. While Rivers. LA&M is only one of several museums in the US that monumentalize the sexual in a public space, it is distinct from these projects in its overt and consistent dedication to queerness, alternative Call for Submissions for 2008 CLGH Prizes sexuality, and the every day lives of those who live, love, and play kinky. The Committee on Lesbian and Gay History, affi liated with the American Historical Association, will award Leather Archives and Museum two prizes in 2008: 6418 N. Greenview Avenue Chicago, IL 60626 The Gregory Sprague Prize for an outstanding PAPER www.leatherarchives.org or CHAPTER on lesbian/gay history written in English by a graduate student at a North American 1 Leather Archives & Museum, “Leather Archives & institution (the Sprague Prize is underwritten by the Museum says ‘Burn That Mortgage!’” Press Release Gerber/Hart Library, Chicago, IL); August 4, 2004, www.leatherarchives.org/resources/ pr18.htm. The Audre Lorde Prize for an outstanding ARTICLE 2 Rubin, “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory on lesbian/gay history written in English by a North of the Politics of Sexuality,” in The Lesbian and Gay American. Studies Reader, edited by Henry Abelove, Michèle Papers and chapters written and articles published Aina Barale, and David M. Halperin (New York: in 2006 or 2007 are eligible. Materials may be Routledge, 1993), 4. submitted by students, faculty, authors, readers, or publishers. Self-nominations are encouraged. Published articles by graduate students may be submitted for both prizes. Please indicate whether 2007 John Boswell Prize Announcement submissions are for the Sprague Prize, the Lorde Prize, or both. The Committee on Lesbian and Gay History (CLGH) is pleased to announce the winner of the 2007 John The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2007. Boswell Prize for the outstanding book on lesbian/ Submissions should be sent by electronic copy to all gay history (published in 2005 or 2006): three of the following 2008 CLGH Prize Committee Martin Meeker, Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Members: Communications and Community, 1940s-1970s Chair: Professor Moshe Sluhovsky (University of Chicago Press, 2005). Professor of History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem In reaching its decisions, the Prize Committee Visiting Associate Professor of History, Brown prepared the following commendation: University “In this rich and densely researched book, Meeker [email protected] explores how young women and men learned more about their homosexuality, particularly if they were Christolyn Williams living in small and isolated places where gays and Assistant Professor, History lesbians were not openly visible or apparent. He Westchester Community College argues that three innovations in communication [email protected] helped individuals to see themselves as members of larger sexual communities: the rise of a homophile Phil Tiemeyer movement in the 1950s, broad public interest in PhD Candidate homosexuality created by the media in the late Dept. of American Studies 1950’s and early 1960s, and the emergence of gay University of Texas at Austin and lesbian self-published guides, gossip sheets, [email protected] Spring 2007 6 Governing Board Nominations for 2007-2010 convening and serving on CLGH-sponsored AHA Term: panels, contributing reviews to the CLGH newsletter, and attending CLGH meetings when possible. I also Matt Johnson have endeavored to support the larger project of Matt Johnson has been a CLGH member since CLGH by researching and publishing work in lesbian 2000. He holds a Masters in Anthropology and and gay history and by volunteering for community- History from the University of Michigan, and based organizations whose mission it is to preserve in June 2007 will receive his Masters in Library and publicize LGBT history. As a member of the Science from Queens College (CUNY). Formerly governing board, I would make it a priority to act as cataloging assistant at the Brooklyn Museum a voice for scholars who are not on the tenure-track Library and library consultant to the International and to liaison with institutions and organizations Resource Network, a Ford Foundation-funded digital beyond the university that support our work as networking initiative of the Center for Lesbian and scholars and teachers. Gay Studies (CLAGS), Matt is currently employed as taxonomy analyst at Accoona, a web search engine. Martin Meeker is an Associate Academic Specialist with the Regional Oral History Offi ce, UC Berkeley, In addition to regularly reviewing books for the and a member of the board of directors of the GLBT CLGH newsletter, Matt has published original Historical Society in San Francisco. After receiving research on eighteenth-century German medical his doctorate in U.S. history from the University of interpretations of intersexed bodies (in the Canadian Southern California, Meeker taught in the history Bulletin of Medical History) and on the ethnography department at San Francisco State University and of gay men’s work in the fi eld of HIV-related in the departments of history, undergraduate behavioral research (in the edited volume Sexual interdisciplinary studies, and American Studies at UC orientation discrimination). His MLS thesis, on the Berkeley. He has published numerous reviews and development of information retrieval vocabularies encyclopedia articles and he has essays published in for materials in GLBT studies, will be excerpted in the Journal of the History of Sexuality and the Journal the forthcoming volume Radical cataloging. He of Women’s History. His book, Contacts Desired: Gay has authored numerous articles for the online and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s- encyclopedia glbtq.com, and has presented papers 1970s, published by the University of Chicago Press and moderated sessions at various professional in 2006, was awarded the 2007 John Boswell Prize meetings as well as community forums. from CLGH. Matt is committed to bringing his expertise in library and information science as well as in Stephen Stillwell historical and ethnographic research to collections Although GLBTQ Studies have not been my own which are focused on archiving, preserving, and main academic concern, as both a gay man and an disseminating materials on sexuality. He is a historian, they are of obvious interest to me. I have member of the Leather Archives & Museum’s Teri a 2002 doctorate from the University of North Texas Rose Library committee, where he is collaborating on and have taught there and at the University of Texas a project to improve subject access to leather, BDSM, at Arlington. My long-term partner and I made a fetish, and kink materials in library catalogs. As a decision several years late to partially retire. We now CLGH board member, he hopes to strengthen ties live in Arizona; where I pursue a number of academic between academic queer historians, information endeavors. My main interests have been in Britain professionals, and community history projects, and the Middle East and I have done some research as well as cultivate professional research interest into the gay males who served “King (or Queen) and in topics which often fall outside the purview of Country” as imperial administrators. I presented canonical GLBT histories. a paper at a regional conference on some of my preliminary fi ndings in this research. Additionally, I Martin Meeker have been a guest lecturer at a number of sociology I am honored to be nominated for a position on the classes on GLBTQ issues. I have also written reviews governing board of CLGH. I have been a member of nearly a dozen books on GLBTQ subjects for four of CLGH for over ten years, since I was a graduate different journals, including our own newsletter. student in the history department at the University Before embarking on my career as an historian, I of Southern California. In the intervening years, worked as a librarian and was quite active in the I have remained committed to CLGH’s work by American Library Association’s GLBTQ group over

7 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History the years. I would like the chance to work as hard for Reviews CLGH as I did for the ALA group some years ago.

Susan Stryker William Benemann, Male-Male Intimacy in Early Susan Stryker earned her Ph.D. in United States America: Beyond Romantic Friendships (New York: History at the University of California at Berkeley, Harrington Park Press, 2006). subsequently held a Ford Foundation/Social Science Research Council postdoctoral fellowship in Thomas A. Foster, Sex and the Eighteenth-Century sexuality studies at Stanford University, and later Man: Massachusetts and the History of Sexuality in served as executive director of the GLBT Historical America (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006). Society in San Francisco. She teaches from time to time at Bay Area colleges and universities, and Reviewed by William Pencak, The Pennsylvania State holds various research appointments, including a University core staff position at the Somatechnics Research Centre in the Department of Critical and Cultural Only a decade ago, anyone hoping to teach the alter- Studies at Macquarie University in Sydney, and native sexual history of early America would have a research associateship at the Centre for the been limited to a few documents (e.g., the letters of History of European Discourses at the University of John Laurens and Alexander Hamilton, Jeff Withers Queensland in Brisbane. In 2006-07 she also holds and James Hammond), a handful of sodomy cases, a Meyers Research Fellowship at the Huntington stories about pirates (e.g., Mary Read and Annie Bon- Library in San Marino, and is Martin Duberman ney), and perhaps some speculations about what Fellow at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, City appears to be a portrait in the New-York Historical University of New York Graduate School. In addition Society of a rather dowdy middle-aged woman who to numerous scholarly articles on transgender theory may or may not have been cross-dressing New York and history, Dr. Stryker is the author of two works Governor Lord Cornbury. Now thanks to the superb of popular nonfi ction, Gay by the Bay: A History of books by Richard Godbeer (The Sexual Revolution Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Early America) and Claire Lyons (Sex Among the Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions in the Golden Age Rabble), a special issue of the William and Mary of the Paperback, both Lambda Literary Award Quarterly (January(January 2005), and an ararticleticle by JoJohnhn Mur- Finalists. With colleague Victor Silverman, she co- rin on bestiality (Pennsylvania History, supplement,supplement, wrote, directed, and produced the Emmy Award- Explorations in Early American Culture, 1998), the winning public television documentary, Screaming fi eld is far richer. The excellent although very differ- Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria, based on ent books by William Benemann and Thomas Foster her own research into the history of transgender make it richer still. community formation in the San Francisco Bay Benemann’s book is a survey of love and friendship Area. In 2006, she co-edited The Transgender Studies between males in early America up until early nine- Reader. She is currently working on two longterm teenth century. After a discussion of gender among projects, a book manuscript, Sex Change City: Urban Native Americans, who honored berdaches (ana- (Trans)Formations in San Francisco, and a fi lm about tomical men who displayed appearances and char- 1950s transsexual celebrity Christine Jorgensen’s acteristics normally gendered female), he uses the work as a fi lmmaker, Christine in the Cutting Room. existing scholarly literature and freshly interpreted primary documents to show the likelihood of same- sex encounters among sailors, soldiers, and frontiers- men, where women were scarce or absent for long periods. He is especially adept at using songs and poems (such as sea shanties and the works of Davy Crockett) to make a persuasive case that men were attracted to each other. Benemann also does a fi ne job summarizing eighteenth-century British litera- ture with same-sex themes available in the colonies (e.g., Tobias Smolett’s Roderick Random), compares American sexual practices to those in Europe, and shows a thorough knowledge of this body of scholar- ship as well.

Spring 2007 8 Two chapters stand out and exemplify Benemann’s Benemann is able to describe both male and female own excellent manuscript research. One is the fasci- attraction that could not be expressed in traditional nating story of Baron Von Steuben, probably forced heterosexual marriages. to leave Europe on account of his sexual relations Benemann attributes same-sex desire either ten- with young men, which he then resumed with two tatively or plausibly as the evidence suggests. For of his younger offi cers at Valley Forge, William North instance, he is aware that fl ogging appealed to the and Benjamin Walker (who in turn were interested sadomasochistic impulses, and knows well the in each other), dividing most of his fortune between extensive contemporary literature that ranked ho- them in his will. In another chapter, Benemann tells mosocial friendship above heterosexual love as the how during Jefferson’s presidency, British diplomats noblest of impulses. Overall, Benemann is cautious Anthony Merry and Augustus John Foster seemed and his judgments sensible. An excellent bibliogra- physically attracted to American men, with Foster phy completes this well-written book. Those seeking lavishing inordinate attention on Wa Pawni Ha, to learn the state of the fi eld as of 2006 could fi nd no a young Sac Indian who visited Washington. The better guide to the subject. eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke and gutter journalist James Callender (who wound up fl oating Foster’s book is both narrower and wider in scope: in the James River after accusations of molesting a narrower, in that it concentrates on Massachusetts young man) complete this fascinating chapter. between the Glorious Revolution and the late eigh- teenth century, and broader, in that it is a general Benemann has an excellent chapter on all-male history of sexual thought and practice in the Bay organizations such as the Tuesday Club in Annapolis, Colony. Foster discusses the normal sexual expecta- the Masons, and the Sons of Liberty. With the lat- tions and behavior of men and women: Massachu- ter, he connects the forms of revolutionary protest setts allowed divorce if men failed to consummate to European and pre-revolutionary American rough their marriages, committed adultery, or betrayed the music and charivari. Political undesirables received marriage covenant by abusing their wives (In a few extra-legal punishment such as beatings, riding out cases, wives were the offending parties). Foster has of town on a rail, and tarring and feathering oth- thoroughly gleaned court records, personal papers, erwise reserved for sexual deviants (e.g., wife beat- and newspapers for accounts of sexually connected ers, adulterers both male and female, old men who crimes (e.g., buggery, sodomy, extramarital sex), married young women). Benemann shows that the concluding that the harsh penalties in law were adult Sons of Liberty were behaving like boys, shout- seldom executed in practice given the diffi culty to ing and parading in the streets, burning their targets discover private behavior and the unwillingness of in effi gy much as they did on Pope’s Day with im- friends and relatives to subject those they knew to ages of the Pope and his imps. At the same time, the those penalties. These case studies are also revealing real boys of Boston were always a large part of their of the language eighteenth-century people used to crowds, both as good cover (to prevent being fi red describe sexual encounters. upon) and in the press (so the mobs could be consid- ered boyish pranks). The small role women played in Foster is especially good at integrating Massachu- the American Revolution compared with their revo- setts practices with the descriptions of sexual activ- lutionary sisters taking part in the French, Russian, ity in guidebooks, novels, and news items transmit- and Latin American revolutions suggests the peculiar ted from Europe to Boston Among his interesting and exclusionary world of male comradeship in early insights is that Massachusetts, despite a small black America. Women were assigned a specifi c sphere, and Indian population, regarded interracial sex with to be mothers and educators of children and moral far more disdain than, say, Pennsylvania, a fact that guardians of the republic, but barred from participa- might be attributed to the Puritans’ special fear of tion in public life. the Devil (or “black man”, as he was frequently called during the witchcraft trials) and persistent Indian Benemann’s book does not (as its title implies) wars throughout the eighteenth century. That there discuss women’s own literary and household circles were many lower-class interracial marriages (or (where they consumed literature and tea rather than unsanctioned unions) in coastal New England was liquor), which scholars such as Carla Mulford and another reason these were regarded as sources of Susan Stabile have superbly discussed, although they potential disorder. have not investigated the evidence of sexual attrac- tion (which may simply not exist). However, when it One of Foster’s several fi ne analyses has considerable comes to the sexual practices of groups such as the present-day relevance: the treatment of the city of Mormons, the Oneida community, and the Shakers, Sodom as discussed in Puritan sermons. Far more 9 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History knowledgeable about the Bible than contemporary waters by a dam, are set to burst forth on the sinner? fundamentalists who equate the sin of Sodom with Here, too, in the mutual recriminations of Old and homosexuality, the eighteenth-century ministers New Lights, might be more grist for Foster’s mill. more correctly focused on the city’s pride and overall Nevertheless, these are not really criticisms so much decadence. Foster also demonstrates the fear of bach- as a satisfi ed reader wishing Foster had done even elors and effeminately behaving men in a society more. I offer these suggestions in the hope that they that treasured the family as a bastion of order. Un- may be considered in the course of further research. encumbered and unrestrained by family obligations, they were seen as selfi sh and extravagant people whose very visible presence in American cities, especially New York, threatened the civic virtue, the E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson (eds.) Black selfl ess devotion to society and state, that political Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology (Durham,(Durham, N.C.: thinkers believed necessary for a republic to survive. Duke University Press, 2005) John McCurdy’s forthcoming book on bachelors will examine this class of men in other places and into Reviewed by Eric Ledell Smith, Historian, Pennsylva- the early republic. nia Historical and Museum Commission. Foster’s research suggests some tantalizing possibili- ties that he, or another scholar, could explore by in- When I fi rst heard of this book, my fi rst thought jecting some political and religious controversy into was that it would probably be a textbook for college a study of this sort. It would be fascinating to know courses on gay and lesbian studies. Indeed, with whether the confl ict between pro-British Anglicizers the exception of Jewelle Gomez, all of the contribu- who sympathized with royal authority, prospered tors are college professors. The editors explain that economically, and looked favorably on the Enlighten- the essays of this anthology by seventeen men and ment and the Anglican Church and the more Puri- women grew out of the 2000 “Black Queer Studies tanical party that stood for the Assembly’s rights and in the Millennium” conference at the University of blamed the economic problems of the Boston area North Carolina at Chapel Hill. So the book takes its on their adversaries resulted in some sexual attacks title from the conference, which then poses im- either veiled or direct. For instance, the salacious mediate questions for the reader: for example, why cartoon that appeared on January 7, 1751 in The Bos- “black” instead of “African American”? Although ton Evening Post (alas, not reprintedreprinted in the vvolume)olume) a recent survey of black LGBTs reveals that most of attacking the Masons as sodomites occurred at a them loathe the term “queer,” the writers in this text particularly interesting time: over the previous four champion it like it is not a problem. African Ameri- years, Boston had seen the great impressment riot, cans have always been sensitive about how they the emergence of a protest newspaper (The Indepen- wish to be identifi ed. dent Advertiser) against a war that cost thousands of Nevertheless, the editors tease the reader with this lives and much money, the controversial conversion dichotomy in that the book is divided into four of the province’s paper currency into specie, and the parts, “each of which activates the tensions between burning of both the capitol building and Speaker of “black” and “queer” (7). The fi rst part looks at why the House Thomas Hutchinson’s Boston home. We the disciplines of black studies and queer studies can learn the names of the Masons: were there any have evolved separately. The second part looks at political dimensions to the satire or other Masonic- “the ways in which the black queer body signifi es related literature? within the American imagination” (10). In the third Similarly, it would have been useful had Foster part, the editors examine “what is at stake when looked at masculinity in the revolutionary era. Are black queer pedagogy is mobilized in the academy” there sexual aspects to attacks on loyalists, asser- (12). The fi nal section is called “Black Queer Fiction: tions of manly behavior in protecting an America Who Is ‘Reading’ Us?” The book also has a foreword sometimes depicted as a naked Indian woman in by Sharon P. Holland, an introduction by the editors, cartoons—who better to defend her than Indians at a bibliography and an index. the Boston Tea Party? — and the lyrics of songs such It is interesting to note that much of the tone and as verses of “Yankee Doodle” comparing the mascu- content of Black Queer Studies resembles the fi rst linity of patriots to shirkers and British soldiers? And part of the 1998 anthology, Inside Academy and what about the sexual subtexts of sermons such as Out: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Studies and Social Action Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry by editors Janice L. Ristock and Catherine Taylor. In God, where the wrath of God, held back like fl ood Spring 2007 10 Ristock and Taylor’s book, much attention is given to David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the queer studies and pedagogy. It is almost as though Gay Revolution (New York: St. Martin’s Griffi n, 2004) the authors in Black Queer Studies are engaged in a conversation about how to justify teaching Black Reviewed by Susan Freeman, Minnesota State Univer- Queer Studies. This conversation no doubt is carried sity, Mankato over from the 2000 conference where various aspects of popular culture are examined as means to teach The Stonewall Riots offer a story of heroism: queers classes about black queer studies. The contributors fi ghting back against intimidation by police and rely very heavily upon writer James Baldwin and his corrupt bar owners. The tale is captivating and full works, despite the fact as Maurice O. Wallace notes, of drama, especially when told from the perspective Baldwin did not want to be called “gay.” Films such of eyewitnesses and participants. “Telling human as Marlon Riggs’s Black Is...Black Ain’t, television stories,” as Martin Duberman chose to do in his 1993 shows like Spin City, photographersphotographers liklikee RoberRobertt MaMap-p- Stonewall, appeals to curiosities about the lives of in- plethorpe and even rap singer/actress Queen Latifah dividual participants in social change.1 Likewise, Da- are analyzed in an effort to use popular culture as a vid Carter’s Stonewall centers on the paths of people, means of teaching black queer studies. When social mostly gay men, who joined together in rebellion on science is brought in as part of black queer studies, a hot summer night in New York City’s Greenwich the results are not convincing. For example, Charles I. Village. Nero’s “Why Are the Gay Ghettoes White?” poses by The expression of militancy by Stonewall Inn bar way of its title a very important point about the mar- patrons on June 27, 1969 ignited a movement of gay ginality of black gay and lesbian people in this coun- liberation in the United States and worldwide. How- try. But Nero’s comparison of the gay neighborhoods ever much historians might qualify the signifi cance of San Francisco with New Orleans takes up only half of the Stonewall Riots in the development of gay and of his article; the other part is devoted to analysis of lesbian activism, it remains a story worth telling. It’s motion pictures and television shows with black gay hard to imagine that Carter’s book won’t generate a characters. It is clear that this is what Nero is really Hollywood screenplay, and there’s no question that into. His sociological treatment of “gay ghettoes” is its appeal extends beyond the academy. Stonewall very disappointing in light of the fact that numerous is a handy text for activists, students, and historians American gay and lesbian bars still practice subtle alike, and not just for the threads of the human-in- forms of racism. terest story it weaves together. Unlike the 1998 book, Inside the Academy and Out, Carter based his account of the Stonewall Riots on Black Queer Studies avoids the topic of AIDS and HIV volumes of evidence, including over 100 interviews infection among gay African American men. In the conducted by the author along with scores of inter- index there are exactly only fi ve references to these views and accounts by other historians. Whereas topics for a book of 374 pages. No scholarly book Duberman’s Stonewall centers on six life stories of on the black gay and lesbian community today can individuals involved with and peripheral to the riots, afford to sidestep this issue. Of course, it is more Carter’s Stonewall highlights a much larger number comfortable and romantic to talk about blacks in of key fi gures in the riots and surrounding events, fi lm and television than to speak of gay and bisexual including street youth, police, Mafi a, media, and black men dying of AIDS due to unsafe sex, drugs, activists, many of whom Carter interviewed during and other unhealthy behavior. How do we reach his ten years of research and writing.2 The two books them? How do we teach them responsible behavior? have much factual information in common and only How do we mentor them to survive the psychological a few factual quibbles between them; in fact, Carter emasculation they face in both the black and the gay uses Duberman’s previous work in nearly every one community for being gay? of his fi fteen chapters. Still, the level of detail about Black Queer Studies is a well-edited anthology of Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, the rioting, essays for the classroom but it does not address the and activism pre-, during, and post-Stonewall in everyday issues facing black gay men and black Carter’s Stonewall far surpasses that of Duberman’s. lesbians. In the end, the two books accomplish quite different things. In addition to sharing Duberman’s dedication to telling human stories, Carter devotes special care to sketching the geography of the Village, Christopher

11 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History Street in particular. The opening chapter to the book the events summoned anger and collective action sets the scene, and the chapters dealing specifi cally essential to historical and present-day struggles for with the riots return to the “irregular streets and tri- liberation. And whether or not Stonewall should angular open spaces” (13) that shaped the sequence symbolize the struggle, it’s hard to imagine what of events as the rebellion unfolded. In addition to might diminish its status as a marker of gay pride the copious oral histories and geographical evidence, in the early twenty-fi rst century – certainly not this Carter relies on published and unpublished contem- book and its in-depth treatment of the history sur- porary sources and historical scholarship as well. rounding the Stonewall Riots. He does a convincing job of reconciling varying and 1 Martin Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Dutton, occasionally contradictory accounts, and his author’s 1993), xvi. note (following the book’s conclusion) is an illumi- 2 Duberman’s monograph deliberately provides a nating discussion of the process by which he re- diverse view of the times, including Yvonne Flow- searched, selected terminology, and constructed his ers, who is African American, and Karla Jay, who is narrative. His critique of the simplistic renderings white and Jewish; Latina transvestite Sylvia Rivera; of Stonewall as inevitable and as spawning a gay and three white gay men with different political movement out of nowhere accords well with other sensibilities: Jim Fouratt, Foster Gunnison, and Craig scholarly interpretations of the changes in gay life in Rodwell. Of these, only Rodwell makes a prominent the second half of the twentieth century. appearance in Carter’s Stonewall. Several claims the author makes challenge common misperceptions about Stonewall’s patrons. While Carter agrees that the bar consisted of a mixed-race and mixed-class crowd, and that it attracted the Steven Cohan, Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, young and rebellious street kids, he disputes the Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical (Durham, N.C.: claims that lesbians and transsexuals were Stone- Duke University Press, 2005) wall regulars. Although ample evidence supports the fact that a butch dyke who resisted arrest on the Reviewed by James W. Jones, Central Michigan Uni- night of riots played a signifi cant role in the escala- versity tion of militancy, it was not the case, he argues, that the bar attracted lesbians as well as gay men. His Steven Cohan’s wide-ranging analysis of classic sources concur that very few lesbians hung out at the MGM musicals, the movie industry then and now, Stonewall Inn. (The index entries for “lesbian” do not and the process of reception and re-defi nition at point readers to this discussion, which can be found work today makes for fascinating and often enter- on pp. 74-75). taining reading. But Cohan’s analysis has little to do with “camp” as the term is used and understood Carter contends that the patronage of transvestites, by most people. The author himself seems aware of transsexuals, and drag queens at the bar has been this discrepancy as he opens the book with sweeping overstated in the years since the riots as well. He at- generalizations such as stating that the MGM musi- tributes this to differences in how the term “queen” cal is today considered an outdated, niche commod- has been used since the late 1960s. Most bar patrons, ity, which he equates with “camp” (1), and goes on to he concludes, were “conventionally masculine,” state: “the camp reputation of the musicals produced while a visible minority “ran the gamut from men by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the 1930s, 1940s, effeminate in their mannerisms, to scare or fl ame and 1950s—the studio era—is pretty much taken queens, to a few transvestites and some transsexu- for granted as a consequence of the genre’s cultish als” (77). That said, Carter doesn’t want to diminish value for gay men” (1). Even for an introduction, this the contributions of a single butch lesbian and a seems a bit broad. In the chapters that follow, how- handful of effeminate, street youth for being at the ever, he moves into a much more nuanced approach; forefront of the rebellion. yet, the defi nition of “camp” continually changes Carter’s assessment of the role of the Mafi a, and until it fades away in an otherwise excellent analy- particularly the use of the Stonewall Inn to gather sis of fans’ electronic battles to stake claims to Judy information on gay men for blackmail, is compel- Garland in discussion boards of websites. ling, though by his own account, not conclusive. For Although Cohan reviews the literature on “camp” him, the bar’s shady dealings raise the question of from Sontag through Andrew Ross, Moe Meyer, Es- whether Stonewall Inn should remain a symbol for ther Newton and others, elements that are generally the GLBT movement. It should, he answers, because seen as crucial to the genre disappear in his applica- Spring 2007 12 tion. He initially defi nes the term as “the ensemble calamitous times was a wave of nostalgia, a wave of strategies used to enact a queer recognition of the that That’s Entertainment I rode to fi nancial success. incongruities arising from the cultural regulation Cohan makes no such connections to that broader of gender and sexuality” (1). That is a fi ne starting context. point, but that defi nition evolves into simply specta- torship and performance in the critique of two fi lmic sequences. Describing “The Man That Got Away” from A Star Is Born, Cohan focuses on Garland’s Paul Jackson, One of The Boys: Homosexuality in performance and Cukor’s framing of it, but nothing the Military during World War II (Montreal:(Montreal: McGill- is mentioned of the lyrics or the song’s role in the Queen’s University Press, 2004). fi lm. The reverse is true when he discusses “The Trol- ley Song” in Meet Me in St. Louis, but the focus of the Reviewed by Stephen J. Stillwell, Jr., Independent critique remains on seeing style, performance and Scholar presentation as what make these sequences into mo- ments of camp. Lacking are the elements of gender The name of the publisher should have been a clue to questioning, satire, and the outsider stance. The the missing word in the title. Jackson’s book explores equation of camp with spectacle is the basis of the the Canadian gay scene [scene?], the Canadian mili- fi rst chapter, although the fi rst mention of one truly tary, and the Canadian experience during the Second camp moment is described on pages 55-57: a se- World War. It did not take me long to get over my quence from Bathing Beauty withwith LLucilleucille Ball, wwhiphip initial consternation and become engrossed with in hand, as tamer of a group of cat-women. this dissertation-turned-book. One of the several joys that I found in the book were the homoerotic The book does address questions of gender identity photographs and pen-and-ink drawings from the in chapter two, and then moves into a useful inves- time in question, which really completed and com- tigation of the ways in which techniques of camp plemented the text in so many ways, such as, when are used to mask, reinforce and problematize race those illustrations depicted entertainment units in several musicals. The next two chapters, compris- with members in drag or when they showed obvious ing about one hundred pages, largely return to the close physical relationships among men in a unit. overly broad defi nition of camp merely as spectacle, as performance, as excess. Such a defi nition robs the Jackson has reviewed hundreds of personnel records term of its usefulness as a critical tool or an analyti- of servicemen and women. He has reviewed records cal category. In both chapters, one on Gene Kelly and of courts martial, and additionally (and to my mind his fi lms and the other on Singin’ in the Rain, even more interestingly), was able to interview over fi fty the author admits that these have little to do with men and women who were involved in the events of camp per se (152, 227). But the chapter on Kelly does those days, reading their diaries and letters, as well provide an excellent analysis of the ways in which as diaries and letters of others involved who are no Kelly, both on screen and off screen, made a show of longer alive. his virility and repeatedly portrayed himself as the The fi rst chapter follows the bureaucratic procedures masculine, ergo heterosexual, male dancer in ut- in the Canadian army, the air force, and the navy as ter opposition to all other male dancers, who were they attempt to establish a sensible policy to deal “sissies.” In this respect, Kelly can be seen as “anti- with homosexuality within their ranks – both what camp,” one could argue. to do with homosexuals as individuals and what In the fi fth chapter, Cohan discusses the ideologi- to do when a same-sex encounter was uncovered. cal packaging and commercial merchandising of There was a certain understanding of situational the three compilations called That’s Entertainment. homosexual experiences; but the military offi cials Although packed with detail and not without illumi- were unsure whether this was “better” or “worse” nating insights, this chapter, like the one on Singin’ than regular homosexual encounters. The policies in the Rain, appears to look at the fi lms within their were mainly directed towards males – probably for “history,” but that history is one circumscribed two reasons: 1) the numbers in the military are over- by the studio lot and the entertainment industry. whelming tilted in that direction, and 2) as Jackson Completely lacking is any glance toward the social so aptly put it – women were already not men – and context. For example, when That’s Entertainment I the whole point was to deal with those in the mili- appeared in 1974, the United States was withdraw- tary, who were somehow not “man enough.” ing from Vietnam, the oil embargo caused a general economic crisis, and one cultural response to the 13 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History The second chapter details the role of the military to those ideals, sometimes it had no impact either police and the military justice system in handling negatively or positively, and sometimes it was con- homosexuals, homosexuality, and homosexual en- ducive and supportive to them. And probably most counters. The third chapter is similar in that it cov- interestingly, there were even instances when the ers the role of the military medical establishment, anti-homosexual moves by the authorities caused particularly its psychiatrists, in dealing with the harm to those ideas. When discussing these very same things. In these chapters and in other parts of real and important issues, Jackson increases his the book, one thing that stood out was the inconsis- scope somewhat and discusses the ancient Spartans, tency, and in some instances, the downright lunacy, a warlike tribe in Melanesia, and the 1990s scandal in the way things were handled. in Canada’s elite Airborne Regiment. In some instances, men were disciplined by being The book is rounded out by a short introduction and sent to prison (another all-male environment) for conclusion, a number of charts in several appendi- several months and then were returned to their ces, a solid bibliography, and an index that could be units. In other cases, they might be transferred to somewhat more exhaustive. Some scholars will be units that were more accepting of “misfi ts.” If the distressed by the lack of coverage of lesbianism in man was adjudged important enough by his com- the book; I feel that it is probably understandable manding offi cer, everything might just be ignored. given the numbers involved and the general invis- Treatment was different depending on the social ibility of and beliefs around lesbianism in society standing, the educational background, the rank, and at the time. Another issue that may cause concern the duties of the personnel involved. When charges is that I felt that the Navy was given short shrift in were leveled, they were inconsistent. If two men the book and that most of the discussion focused on were discovered having sex, only one was charged the Army and Air Force. That may be true because and the other was compelled to testify against the that was were the bulk of the resources and willing fi rst. Some of the testimony was ludicrous: for exam- interviewees lay. Overall, these issues aside, Jackson ple, Jackson reported an instance where one service- did a masterful job. man reportedly turned in another when he realized that the second man might be a homosexual because the second man had spent the last three nights play- ing with the penis of the man making the report. Gayatri Reddy, With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India (Chicago: University of Chi- Chapters Four and Five are also paired: the former cago Press, 2005). reviews the experiences of men and a few women while serving at military installations or on board Reviewed by Linda Heidenreich, Washington State ship within Canada and Canadian waters, while University the latter surveys those experiences overseas. This section focuses on those forces stationed in Britain Gayatri Reddy’s With Respect to Sex is the most lay- (although “England” is always used in the book) ered and nuanced study of hijras published to date. during the war and those Canadians fi ghting in Like Serena Nanda’s Neither Man nor Woman,1 Reddy Italy and the Netherlands. It is here that there is the portrays hijras, Indian persons who identify as “not biggest gap in the book. There is no mention of the men and not women,” as fl esh and blood human Canadians serving in Alaska or pre-confederation beings, marginalized people struggling to survive in Newfoundland in North America, nor those serv- often hostile environments. Reddy’s contribution to ing in Hong Kong, Burma, and the rest of the Pacifi c the literature is that she complicates sex and gender, and Asian theatre. This may be for lack of primary demonstrating how sex and gender are both classed sources in this area; it certainly was not because and infl uenced by religion. Ultimately, a very dy- there were no homosexuals or homosexual activity namic image of individuals and community emerges in those areas. from her text, one where the axes constructing hijra The fi nal chapter is, in many ways, the most impor- identity include gender, sexuality, religion, respect, tant because it deals with the issues raised by many class, and kinship. Hijras are located within a larger of those who oppose the open and active military history and culture of India, and of a larger commu- service of gay men and lesbians. The chapter both nity of kotis, or “female identifi ed” persons who were is entitled and discusses “Esprit de Corps, Cohe- born biological males. sion, and Morale.” The conclusions here are mixed – sometimes the homosexuality was detrimental

Spring 2007 14 Reddy’s focus is on a specifi c community of hijras political and literary traditions where eunuchs could who lived in Secunderabad, in southern India. The hold positions of respect in royal courts, and where community lived under a water tank, and had fewer Shiva, the god of destruction, tore off his phallus and resources and less status than hijra communities in threw it into the earth, making the earth fecund. In the neighboring city of Hyderabad. Reddy spent four telling of India’s rich history and culture, Reddy does years getting to know the community living under not romanticize the past, nor does she romanticize the water “tanki.” In doing so, she also studied and the position of hijras in Indian society. While the interacted with other female-identifi ed persons liv- presence of hijras can be mapped in Indian literature ing in the same region. as early as the fi fth century CE, their status, like that of eunuchs, has been marginalized. During the colo- For Reddy, “female identifi ed men” comprise a vari- nial era, they were categorized as criminals, arrested ety of different, sometimes fl uid identities. Among on the streets and pushed off of their traditional them are hijras, but zennana kotis, jogins, and kada- lands. Today they are both respected and denigrated catla kotis also people the gendered landscape of by the dominant culture. Thus families invite them southern India. All kotis, according to Reddy, are to bless their homes with fertility, yet the earnings of female-identifi ed. To one extent or another, they hijras are so small they live in poverty, and most of perform female gender through dance, dress, and their families disown them. demeanor (e.g., swaying hips when walking). Taking a receptive role in sexual relationships with men is Yet it is izzat, or respect, that is central to hijra life- part of performing their gender identity. Yet not all ways and identity. And one of the things that makes kotis are alike. And Reddy’s mapping of koti iden- Reddy’s work so important is the attention that she tity helps to clarify the unique role of hijras in south pays to respect in constructing hijra identity. In this Indian society. Kada-catla kotis, for example, wear her work joins that of anthropologists such as Tom men’s clothing and sometimes have wives and chil- Boellstorff in his work on Indonesian Waria. It is dren. But they also have husbands, and when they only recently that scholars of kinship-based cultures congregate together they use their bodies, hips and have moved away from concepts of “honor” and wrists to perform femininity. Zenanas, like hijras, “shame” to map value landscapes rooted in “respect,” dance and perform in women’s clothing, but wear a less sex-centric, more layered approach to under- men’s clothing when they are not performing, and standing community status in many communities. jogins dress as women, are devout Hindus, and are For hijras, according to Redday, izzat is formed along affi liated with a Hindu temple. a number of axes. Hijras acquire and maintain izzat from the correct practice of Islam, from rejecting sex, Thus, religion plays a crucial role in hijra identity. from skilled dancing, and perhaps most importantly, As Muslims, hijras are not jogins. Christians and from establishing good kin-networks. A hijra who Hindus join hijra communities, and when they do, makes her living performing at weddings, would they embrace Islam. As hijras, they observe both therefore have more izzat than a hijra who supports male and female Muslim practices, they are circum- herself through sex work. Hijras who are celas, or cised, they observe dietary regulations, and they disciples, have izzat when they are in good standing adopt Muslim greetings. Some speak of nirvan, the with their gurus and sister celas. Gurus have more operation to remove their penis and testicles, as a izzat than celas, and so on. second circumcision, pointing out that they are more Muslim than non-hijra Muslims. Older hijras some- Ultimately, Reddy’s work will be more appropri- times go on pilgrimages. Yet, Reddy points out, hijras ate for graduate students and professors than un- also embrace some Hindu practices, specifi cally the dergraduates. It does contain a glossary of useful worship of Bedhraj Mata or Bahuchara Mata, who terms, and a chapter dedicated to telling koti stories watches over them when they undergo nirvan, in their own words. But the organization of the and through whom they grant fertility to married text sometimes makes it diffi cult to follow; this, in couples. Thus, the religious identity that shapes combination with the very complex and contextual hijra identity is both Muslim and Hindu. This layered mapping of hijra lives that Reddy provides might identity, Reddy argues, is a product of the rich and make it diffi cult for undergraduates to fully utilize. layered political-cultural history of India. For the undergraduate classroom, then the text will be best used selectively, as background for lectures or Reddy’s mapping of India’s long history of religious as chapters in a reader. For advanced students and and cultural pluralism demonstrates how it is that scholars of South Asia and/or gender, the work will hijras are an integral part of Indian society. Muslim be indispensable. and Hindu cultures together formed rich religious, 15 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History 1 Serena Nanda, Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of Liberty to the insidious portrayals of “breeder” of India (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing, families on seemingly apolitical keepsakes like 1990). snow globes, back scratchers, key chains, and pic- 2 Tom Boellstorff, “Playing Back the Nation: Waria, ture frames. A word to the skeptical (and perhaps Indonesian Transvestites,” Cultural Anthropology 19, conventional) historian: harbor little fear, Rand is a 2 (May 2004): 159-195. clever yet compassionate tour guide who “strive[s] to write in a manner that can be read without undue struggle in various contexts” (35). In other words, critique implied, in the fl ush of cerebral titillation Erica Rand, The Ellis Island Snow Globe (Durham, Rand often races ahead of her less adept charges, but N.C.: Duke University Press, 2005). only because she, obviously, is too thrilled to temper her own enthusiasm for cultural awakenings. But Reviewed by Karen C. Krahulik, Brown University she never wanders far, instead consistently if some- what absent-mindedly glancing over her shoulder to When was the last time you read an academic article reconnect with readers willing to go a certain intel- or book that you would describe afterward, in the lectual distance. most positive sense of the term, as a “page turner”? At the beginning of her book, Rand teases her audi- Has it been a while since you’ve happened upon a ence by explaining that this entire academic project text that has inspired you to laugh (or at least chuck- started out as a playful bet she made while “on a le), cry (or at least empathize), and think critically hot date” with a butch lesbian to visit Ellis Island. “I about the technologies of race, sexuality, gender, was...in it for the ferry ride more than the destina- and class implicated in nationalist productions and tion,” she writes (2). The bet was about whether consumptions of history? I’ve been a lucky butch or not Ellis Island had the audacity to commodify lately. Not only have I enjoyed delving into Allan immigrants’ often grueling if not devastating experi- Bérubé’s analysis of his own trailer park past in “Sun- ences at the island by selling souvenirs items, such set Trailer Park,” and Laura Kipnis’s intriguing inter- as snow globes. The lesbian who bet that Ellis Island view with scholar/performance artist “White Trash did, in fact, sell snow globes won (you’ll have to Girl,” I also have benefi ted intellectually and, dare I read the book to see who gets to be the top in Rand’s say, erotically from Erica Rand’s playful and keen as- fi rst story). The initial narrative evolves swiftly into sessment of historical sites and souvenirs in The Ellis intense scholarly critique as Rand explores how Island Snow Globe. interactions among sex, products, nation and money Rand’s fi nal product is a scintillating text that complicate contemporary manipulations of histori- analyzes the ways in which four cultural practices cal representation. (involving migration, money, products, and nation) Turning to golf balls, photographsphotographs and other culculturaltural and three categories of analysis (sexuality, class, and artifacts, Rand assesses how images of heterosexual race) become entangled politically in the restora- nuclear units (man, woman, child) obscure, histori- tion of two historic sites: Ellis Island and the Statue cally, the complexity of immigrants’ sexualities and of Liberty. This is not a traditional history book in genders. Rand locates queer bodies and sexualities its methodology or its tone, nor does it pretend to in the Ellis Island archives. Yet rather than simply be. Combining archival research with ethnographic recuperate, for example, female-bodied immigrants observations (called “eavesdropping”), Rand deploys who identifi ed and presented as male, such as Frank something like “thick description” (à la Clifford Woodhull, Rand analyzes “how the idea that breed- Geertz or Jennifer Terry) to analyze people (in the ers make heritage is constructed to be taken for past and in the present) and their products (from granted” (28). In examining the policing and regula- historical landmarks to kitschy souvenirs). Trained tion of “gender at the border” (29), Rand intervenes as an art historian and located institutionally now in the current historiography about “passing wom- in women and gender studies, Rand’s project falls en” by arguing for a more nuanced understanding queerly in the interdisciplinary realm of cultural and nomenclature regarding “female-to-male pre- studies. The Ellis Island Snow Globe entices its read- senters.” Specifi cally, Rand calls on historians and ers to peer deeply, seriously and critically into the others to resist the practice of “she-ing” these men by heterosexist, racist and consumerist trappings that referring to them, categorically, as “passing women” make legible historic artifacts from the monumen- (84-92). In “The Traffi c in My Fantasy Butch,” Rand tal gendering (as butch) and racing (as white, not exposes misguided political fury over fundraising black or green) of nationalist icons like the Statue practices regarding the Statue of Liberty (i.e., Rand’s Spring 2007 16 “fantasy butch”) and asks why those orchestrating Henry Abelove, Deep Gossip. Minneapolis: University and celebrating “Liberty Weekend” in 1986 were not of Minnesota Press, 2003. equally outraged over, for instance, Bowers v. Hard- wick. She follows this chapter with “Green Woman, Reviewed by Tirza True Latimer, Yale University Race Matters,” wherein she discusses two critical . race analyses regarding the Statue of Liberty: fi rst, Henry Abelove’s name is familiar to those of us that the meanings supporting the Statue as a beacon whose bookshelves and syllabi contain The Lesbian for immigrants dismisses people whose ancestors and Gay Studies Reader. This tour-de-force collection did not arrive in the United States by choice; and, – which helped to defi ne the fi eld referenced in its second, that contemporary readings of the Statue title – broke ground in 1993, and, like most of the ignore its beginnings as a tribute to the end of slav- previously published essays reprinted in Deep Gossip, ery. At the end of her book, Rand rewards us for our remains relevant today. The Reader, at the time of dedication to “Ellis Island—the site, the history, the its release, provoked criticism from some sectors for concept,” (260) by analyzing the dynamics involved its “cautious academicism.” In question, above all, in the Ellis Island tourist “attraction” entitled, “De- was the decision on the part of Abelove and his co- cide an Immigrant’s Fate.” She asks, pointedly, “why editors, Michèle Aina Barale and David Halperin, to [the National Park Service would] put into repeated retain “lesbian and gay studies” rather than “queer circulation a title that echoes some of the worst poli- studies” in the Reader’s title. Indeed, the anthology’s cies and impulses occurring today” and in the past introduction anticipates this critique: “We have both within the confi nes of Ellis Island and beyond reluctantly chosen not to speak here and in our title (259). of ‘queer studies,’ despite our own attachment to the term, because we wish to establish the force of cur- Rand’s idiosyncratic tendency to make central the rent usage,” the editors explain. “Just as the project ways in which she shops and thinks (not necessar- of seeking legitimate institutional and intellectual ily but sometimes in that order), which I interpret space for lesbian/gay studies need not render less as part of her incessant fl irting (a femme eroticizing forceful its challenge to the scholarly and critical the practice of critically accessorizing), had the ef- status quo, so our choice of ‘lesbian/gay’ indicates no fect of engaging me seriously and thoughtfully with wish on our part to make lesbian/gay studies look arguments featured in The Ellis Island Snow Globe. I less assertive, less unsettling, and less queer than enjoyed the book because it prompted me to think it already does.” The introduction concludes with a about historical representations; I also enjoyed it dedication to “our students, whom we fully expect because it made me feel like I was on a date. Desire will remake the fi eld of lesbian/gay studies—per- is a good thing, Rand makes clear. But will Rand’s haps beyond recognition—in the years ahead” (xvii). book have the same effect on audiences who do not fall prey to her femme entrapments? Will they read At the heart of Deep Gossip, Abelove’s fi rst book- her witticisms as clever and fl irtatious, or will they length publication since the 1993 edited volume, lies see them as distracting if not fl ippant or perhaps ar- a resonant piece titled “The Queering of Lesbian/ rogant? Aside from the tone, I have two comments. Gay History.” This essay, itself fi rst published over First, I applaud Rand’s politics to reach a broader a decade ago, continues to meditate on a perceived audience by destabilizing the perception that “‘real’ schism between lesbian/gay and queer. “When my theory” stems from “fancy words and fancy degrees queer students read the major English-language above all,” and by “opt[ing] when possible for the works of lesbian/gay history published since the less academic of [her] own vernaculars” (35). She late 1960s and dealing with the modern emergence accomplishes this best when she is being fl irtatious. of lesbian and gay identity, community and culture, However, she fails miserably by relying on obfus- they respond to this work differently than did their cating jargon on too many occasions (how many lesbian and gay predecessors of just a very few years general audience readers put down the book at page ago in the same classroom,” observes Abelove, a 90 if not before?). Finally, I wish Rand’s editors had professor of English at Wesleyan. He conceives of his attached a subtitle. The Ellis Island Snow Globe is a students as “an interpretive community” and then delightful teaser, but my fear is that the title—like proposes to “interpret them interpreting history” the gift shop snow globe—obscures the nuances of (43). Tropes of exclusion, marginalization, and libera- sexuality, race and consumerism that Rand adeptly tion from “the closet” had less personal meaning to exposes within. this generation of students (circa 1995). Yet Abelove’s conviction about the pertinence of “minoritizing” historical narratives shines through, lit from within

17 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History by an activist’s passion for pedagogy. “I believe I Homosexuality, and the Americans” and the essays know that far more unites than divides lesbian, gay, that unfold in its aftermath (chronologically, in the and queer,” the piece concludes, like a poem or a order they were written). I expected something more prayer (55). This essay, although still intellectually on the order of Gavin Butt’s recent Between You and engaging, would benefi t from a coda revisiting these Me: Queer Disclosures in the New York Art World. questions within today’s more conservative political While Butts focus’s on the operationality of gossip, framework (for example, I have students who shy how it constitutes and consolidates queer relation- away from taking courses with “queer” in the title ships and cultural communities, Abelove deploys the out of concern for the consequences of the word ap- concept somewhat differently. He identifi es gossip pearing on their permanent transcripts). as an accessible form of knowledge, thus power. “It is an indispensable resource for those who are in Even so, I stand by my assertion that this essay lies at any sense or measure disempowered.” Gossip can the heart of Abelove’s book – not only for its position be described as “deep,” despite its connotations of at the center of the volume’s table of contents but shallowness, “whenever it circulates in subterranean also for its articulation of the tensions animating ways and touches on matters hard to grasp and of a scholarly and theoretical project that brilliantly crucial concern” (xii). If the relationship between queers History. With considerable panache, Abelove gossip and some of the topics Abelove treats is ob- unravels master narratives and problematizes pre- scure, knowledge (how it is constituted, transmitted, vailing cultural myths—all the while retaining a modifi ed) is always clearly a central concern. palpable sympathy for pre-postmodern identity poli- tics. “The queer students were interested in destabi- The book’s second essay, “Some Speculations on the lizing identity in the past as well as in the present, History of Sexual Intercourse during the Long Eigh- and ...they wanted the performance of that desta- teenth Century in England” (completed in 1989) “as bilization to be always primary.” What the works of the advances, for instance, a new hypothesis about lesbian/gay history can do, he demonstrates, “is to the conventionalization of sexual intercourse. This historicize identity. From historicizing to destabiliz- occurred, the author maintains, in England between ing is arguably just a step” (54). This is the claim that 1680 and 1830. Drawing inspiration from pivotal Abelove makes, and the step that he takes, time and works in the history of sexuality (especially histories again throughout this terse but elegantly choreo- of gay and lesbian sexuality), Abelove attempts to graphed ensemble. demonstrate the historical contingency of sexual intercourse as we understand the term (and the act) The essays collected in Deep Gossip span decades of today. The essay would have been more convincing Abelove’s career. Four out of six have been published if he had fl eshed out his thesis more fully. This piece elsewhere. The fi rst, “Freud, Male Homosexuality, is, to my mind, the weakest in the book--however and the Americans,” originally appeared in Dissent predisposed I might be to applaud the initiative. This in 1985. A tremendously important intervention into said, the use of “speculations” in the title no doubt the fi elds of cultural and intellectual history, and excuses the author in advance for his disinclina- more precisely the histories of psychoanalysis and tion to elaborate. Yet, phrases like “on some other sexuality, the value of this scholarship endures and occasion I should like to say more” (24), “what does time has not dulled its critical edge. “Freud argued, seem to me at least conceivable, though I am just in direct opposition to the homosexual emancipa- speculating in saying so” (26) and “I cannot say that tion movement of his own day, that homosexuals I have such fi ndings to present to you” (27) repeat- constituted not ‘special variety’ of humankind, no edly call the reader’s attention to the tenuousness of ‘distinct sexual species,’” Abelove explains in his cur- the argumentation. Similar disclaimers crop up here rent introduction. “I very much wanted to bring that and there throughout the book, in fact, assuming genuinely Freudian lesson into discussion within the the character of a literary tic: “I won’t comment in lesbian/gay civil rights movement, which was active detail” (38), “my object isn’t to provide a full account” in 1980 when the essay was composed and has been (56), “I would like to comment, if only schematically” active since then as well” (xiii). The questions the (71), etc. As I mused on this tic, I came to accept it essay raises about sexual subjectivity and its theo- as a method. The essays no longer seem fl awed by retical representation remain timely. This essay, the systematic abbreviation when viewed as models for most solidly constructed, anchors the refl ections and practicing queer historicism, rather than models of interpretive escapades that follow. queer history per se. The impulse to economize, from The title Deep Gossip evoked for me a different kind this perspective, appears generous. And claims left of project than the one I discovered in “Freud, Male hanging assume the allure of invitations ...perhaps to

Spring 2007 18 those students who “will remake the fi eld of lesbian/ berg praised O’Hara’s ear “for our deep gossip” (xi). gay studies—perhaps beyond recognition—in the Abelove’s attentiveness to “subterranean” registers years ahead.” of poetry and meaning in American culture and his commitment to “matters hard to grasp and of cru- “Some Speculations” precedes a piece of writing that cial concern” makes this title, in the last analysis, an more successfully shows off the originality of Abe- extremely apt choice. love’s mind as well as his method, “From Thoreau to Queer Politics” (which appeared in Yale Journal of Criticism in 1993). The most audacious (and to bor- row the term employed by Thoreau’s critics, the most “eccentric”) essay in the collection, “From Thoreau to Queer Politics” refl ects on notions of “nationhood” in relation to, on the one hand, Thoreau’s Walden and, on the other, Queer Nation (more precisely the local Salt Lake City chapter to which Abelove once belonged). Here we see what Abelove does best: pro- pose unexpected correspondences that produce, via some psychic and/or intellectual alchemy, new vis- tas, new schemas, new modes of understanding both history and contemporary experience, dialogically.

The penultimate essay (following up on “The Queer- ing of Lesbian/Gay History”) returns to disciplinary concerns, refl ecting, in this instance, on “American Studies, Queer Studies.” This unexpectedly poignant chapter explores the history of the former in relation to the latter. Abelove focuses on E. O. Matthiessen, one of the founders of the discipline of American Studies. A gay man and committed socialist, the once revered Harvard professor took his life in 1950, a vic- tim of the right-wing political campaigns that seized the nation he took as his object of study. “American Studies as a discipline...is a well-received and much- validated set of reaction formations to questions... framed at the start of the discipline’s development but immediately and thoroughly defl ected, sacri- fi ced, and repressed, as were the questioners them- selves,” Abelove concludes (69). These questions regard the “erotic dynamic, ties affections, affi lia- tions, that bound together the white men” (68) who founded the republic.

Deep Gossip concludes with Abelove’s most recent essay, “New York City, Gay Liberation, and the Queer Commuters.” Here, the author posits a kinship between the language of gay liberation and that of literature. He argues that “the rhetoric of gay libera- tion had been drawn from the queer-infl ected anglo- phone literature of the 1950s and 1960s” produced by authors such as James Baldwin, Elisabeth Bishop, Paul Bowles, Jane Bowles, William Burroughs, Al- len Ginsberg, Paul Goodman, Frank O’Hara, and Ned Rorem (xviii). This brings us full circle, in a way, since the title of the book derives from an elegy to Frank O’Hara penned, in 1966, by Allen Ginsberg. Gins-

19 Committee on Gay and Lesbian History BALLOT CLGH By law Amendment and Governing Board Elections – April-May 2007 Please complete this ballot and return by June 15, 2007. Return to: Karen C. Krahulik Associate Dean of the College Box 1939 Providence, RI, 02912

By law Amendment Proposed amendment to bylaws: Add the following Section 7 under Article VI: Committees Section 7: The chairperson, in consultation with the governing board, shall appoint a secretary to man- age all meetings and all aspects of membership for the CLGH. The secretary will deliver a written mem- bership report each year. Approve by law amendment: Yes: ___ No: ____

Governing Board Elections The mission of the CLGH Governing Board is to further the goals of CLGH and to assist and advise the CLGH chair. Governing Board members are expected to take responsibility for at least one CLGH project each year. Select two candidates for three-year terms (15 June 2007 to 14 June 2010). _____ Matt Johnson _____ Susan Stryker _____ Martin Meeker _____ Stephen Stillwell

Revise Dues Structure: Due to a $400 annual operating defi cit, the treasurer of the CLGH has proposed the following increase in annual membership dues.

The current schedule is thus: ____ US$5.00 Basic (Student, Retired, Unemployed) ____ US$10.00 Regular (annual income less than US$40,000) ____ US$20.00 Regular (annual income more than US$40,000) ____ US$35.00 Patron ____ US$150.00 Lifetime

Proposed schedule: ____ US$20.00 Basic (Student, Retired, Unemployed, income less than US $50,000) ____ US$40.00 Regular (annual income more than US$40,000) ____ US$100.00 Patron ____ US$500.00 Lifetime

Approve Revised Dues Schedule : Yes ______

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Lytton Strachey and the “THIS VALUABLE RESOURCE is a collection of classic speeches and rhetoric that defined the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and Scandal Search for Modern Sexual Identity transgender movements.” Infamous Gay Controversies of the Twentieth Century The Last Eminent Victorian —The Book Nook (GayToday.com, TWN The Weekly News, Boston Bay) Marc E. Vargo, MS Julie Anne Taddeo, PhD Collects more than a hundred years of speeches, political manifestos, “HIGHLY READABLE . . . infomative for people wanting to learn “PROVIDES INTERESTING NEW INSIGHTS AND IMPORTANT and broadsheets of the gay and lesbian liberation movement. about some all-too-often neglected stories.” INFORMATION.” $49.95 soft. ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-175-2. / $69.95 hard. ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-174-5. —Library Journal —Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide 2004. 845 pp. with Index. A unique blend of biography and gay political history! Looks at homosexuality through the eyes of Lytton Strachey, $19.95 soft. ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-412-8. / $34.95 hard. ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-411-1. one of the neglected voices of early twentieth-century England. 2003. 210 pp. with Index. $22.95 soft. ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-359-6. / $39.95 hard. ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-358-9. 2002. 192 pp. with Index.

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