Creating a Place For Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories / Edition 1

by Brett Beemyn

Overview

Creating a Place For Ourselves is a groundbreaking collection of essays that examines gay life in the United States before Stonewall and the gay liberation movement. Along with examining areas with large gay communities such as New York, San Francisco and Fire Island, the contributors also consider the thriving gay populations in cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Washington, D.C., Birmingham and Flint, demonstrating that gay communities are truly everywhere.

Contributors: Brett Beemyn, Nan Alamilla Boyd, George Chauncey, Madeline Davis, Allen Drexel, John Howard, David Johnson, Liz Kennedy, Joan Nestle, Esther Newton, Tim Retzloff, Marc Stein, Roey Thorpe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415913904
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/07/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	306
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.99(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Brett Beemyn teaches at Western Illinois University

Table of Contents

Introduction, Brett Beemyn; Chapter 1 1. The Policed, George Chauncey; Chapter 2 “I Could Hardly Wait to Get Back to that Bar”, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Madeline D. Davis; Chapter 3 “Homos Invade S.F.!”, Nan Alamilla Boyd; Chapter 4 The Kids of Fairytown, David K. Johnson; Chapter 5 Before Paris Burned, Allen Drexel; Chapter 6 The “Fun Gay Ladies”, Esther Newton; Chapter 7 The Changing Face of Lesbian Bars in Detroit 1938–1965, Roey Thorpe; Chapter 8 A Queer Capital, Brett Beemyn; Chapter 9 Place and Movement in Gay American History, John Howard; Chapter 10 Cars and Bars, Tim Retzloff; Chapter 11 “Birthplace of the Nation”, Marc Stein; Chapter 12 Afterword, Joan Nestle; contrib Notes on Contributors; Index;

Editorial Reviews

"...essays are fascinatingly researched and engagingly written; the depth of detail here is simply splendid...this collection of essays illuminates how the complicated matrix of gender, race, class (and to some extent mobility, both social and physical) has come into play in the formation of gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities." -- The Lavender Salon Reader
"This rich and varied collection will allow teachers of social history and of the twentieth-century United States to incorporate material on sexual identity more easily into their courses." -- John D'Emilio, The Journal of American History
"The essays in Creating a Place for Ourselves provide important and inspirational building blocks in the ever-expanding field of lesbian, gay, and bisexual community studies." -- Lesbian Review of Books

From the Publisher

This collection of scholarly essays sets itself the task of uncovering untold stories of gay American history. Selecting times and places from the 1920s to the '60s, from San Francisco to Fire Island, the 13 writers included here, all academics, argue that there is more to gay history than that centered around the Castro and Greenwich Village. Because of its unambitious scope and the banal interviewing techniques of the contributors, the collection does little more than make that single point. The highlight of the book is Esther Newton's piece on Fire Island, in which she makes the case that the gay resort off Long Island would not be what it is without the contributions of several prominent lesbians of the 1930s. Newton's article does what the other essays probably should have donecombine interesting facts and minutiae with a good narrative and compelling historical characters. The other 12 pieces gather a dozen or so incidental facts and provide particular historical reference material to make a walk through the neighborhood a bit more resonant. Thus the book is more a tool for those engaged in similar lines of study than a useful study in itself. Beemyn teaches African American history at the University of Iowa. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Butch lesbians in Buffalo, high-class lesbians in Cherry Grove, gay auto workers in Flint, and all sorts of gay folk in San Francisco and New York are all found in this collection of essays examining the development of myriad gay communities in the country. Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Birmingham, and Philadelphia are also covered. Doubts that there were sizable gay communities before Stonewall will now be put to rest. Sometimes focusing on specific events or subgroups, the sociological studies collected here by Beemyn (African American studies, Univ. of Iowa) demonstrate how gay and lesbian gathering places served not only as venues for sexual contact but also provided a social network. The police raids and harassment, threats from neighbors, and government surveillance that were customary before Stonewall (and even in parts of the country today) are discussed here. But the focus is on how gay and lesbian communities not only survived but passed on a legacy through it all. Highly recommended for gay and lesbian studies collections.Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Library Journal