Books for the LGBTQ History in Your Life

The scene is Charleston, South Carolina; the time, the 1920s, when old ladies dream of the past and a strange new dance, "the Charleston," is seducing the youth of the city. Years later, whispers emerge of something baffling and tragic that happened back then. As an old man confronts those demanding the truth, we catch brilliant flashes of the confrontation between the dark, doomed Hirsch Hess, son of immigrants, and the fantastically ethereal Ned Grimke, a scion of the city.

Told in intoxicatingly beautiful prose, this story of passion, beauty and the deadly effects of sexual repression takes us to a specific time and place, yet simultaneously blossoms as a universal tale of the human heart in conflict with its era.



This cult classic, set in the most intriguing period of one of America's most beautiful cities, is now restored to print with an afterword by its author that traces the facts upon which it is based.

Famous and forgotten, they're all our fabulous ancestors.
From Charles Warren Stoddard, the first openly gay San Franciscan, to Felicia "Flames" Elizondo, the exuberant transgender rights advocate, the LGBT community is integrally woven into the fabric of the city's history. Household names like Queen Califia, Charley Parkhurst, Elsa Gidlow, Jose Sarria and Harvey Milk are celebrated worldwide, while Bert LaRose, Mabel Edison and Clarence Lockett are now largely forgotten. Whether '49ers, bohemians, beatniks, boomers, hippies, clones or conformists, their fascinating stories contributed to the development of a vibrant community, many simply by being themselves.
Join Dr. William Lipsky as he recounts their struggles and achievements in the City by the Bay.

A gay love triangle, drug deals, and a murder. Just another night in West Palm Beach in 1984?

Jeffrey Heagerty was like most young gay nineteen-year-olds in South Florida in the 1980s, commonly finding himself and his friends at the popular Kevin's Cabaret in West Palm Beach on Saturday nights. On one of those Saturday nights in 1984, Jeff vanished from the club, leaving his friends behind even though he was their ride home. His body was found in a canal the next morning and his car was missing, only to be found a month later, abandoned on the other side of town. Rumors of a love triangle, drug dealings and sexual encounters snarled police efforts at solving the case. The investigation stagnated and the case grew cold until the solution came from two unexpected sources: overlooked details in police photographs of Jeff's car and a mysterious letter from an inmate in the Palm Beach County Jail.

p>The queens that made Milwaukee famous

For over a century, drag has been an unstoppable force in Milwaukee nightlife. On June 7, 1884, "The Only Leon'? brought the fine art of female impersonation to the Grand Opera Hall, launching a proud local legacy that continues today at This Is It, La Cage, Hamburger Mary's, D.I.X. and innumerable other venues.

Historians Michail Takach and BJ Daniels recognize that today's LGBTQ liberties were born from the strength, resilience, and resistance of yesterday's gender non-conforming pioneers. This is a long overdue celebration of those stories, including high-rolling hustler of the Fourth Ward "Badlands'? Frank Blunt, over-the-top dinner theater drag superstar of the 1950s Adrian Ames, and "It Kid'? Jamie Gays, first-ever Miss Gay Milwaukee and Latin community hero.

And many, many more.

From arrests and ostracization to public festivals and drag shows, the LGBTQ+ people of Evansville have walked a twisting path to their current existence. In the early days of the city, local newspapers harassed and bullied members of this group, even going so far as to encourage them to commit suicide. A series of murders in the 1950s and 1960s left Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender population of Evansville without justice and validation. The AIDS epidemic of the 1980s did the same. Happily, things have changed. Today, the city's LGBTQ community is out and proud, and thousands attend the annual Pride parade down Main Street. Looking back on more than a century of uneven progress, Kelley Coures unfolds this often tragic yet at times hopeful story.

Since the early 1900s, Silver Lake has been a magnet for iconoclastic writers, architects and political activists. Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the Hollyhock House for socialist and oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, drew a wave of visionary modernists to the area. Local civil rights advocate Loren Miller spearheaded the fight against housing discrimination. Silver Lake's Black Cat bar and Harry Hay's Mattachine Society were central to the early gay rights movement. Literary artists Anäis Nin and James Leo Herlihy made the neighborhood their home, as did other notables like first lady of baseball Effa Manley and "Hobo Millionaire" James Eads How. Michael Locke and Vincent Brook chronicle these and other people and places that helped make Silver Lake the bohemian epicenter of Los Angeles.