How Italy’s Anti-Mask Law Was Weaponized
IN 1967, Nicola De Bartolo appeared before Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation. She was appealing a conviction for “wearing a mask in a public place.” Unbeknownst to De Bartolo,…More
Browsing: History
Blog Posts
Taking Stock as The G&LR Turns 30
Editors Note: This issue marks the start of The G&LR’s thirtieth year of publication. Our thirtieth birthday is still a year off, but this seems a good time to take stock of where we’ve been and where we are now.
As luck would have it, a frequent contributor to the magazine, John Killacky, recently wrote a piece for an on-line magazine, The Arts Fuse (artsfuse.org), which provides a general history and overview of The G&LR. While written for a “lay” audience, I think it contains some facts and figures that even veteran readers of this magazine may find interesting. (What follows has been adapted from the Arts Fuse piece.)
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Survival in the Belly of the Beast
Secret City flips a light switch on, illuminating over six decades and eleven presidential administrations, from Roosevelt to Clinton. What’s shown is an epic story with a cast of thousands—well-known and forgotten, villains and victims. It’s a history of gay Washington, where the fear of blackmail and the rise of a vast national security apparatus during the Cold War years made being gay especially dangerous.
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How 3 Activists Stopped the Madness
John Fryer as “Dr. Henry Anonymous,” wearing a mask, started by stating that he as psychiatrist, a member of the APA, and a homosexual.
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Men at Sea in the 19th C.: The Case of Fryer
Maritime commerce in general, and whaling in particular, provided a haven for men of all races and creeds in the 19th century.
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Steven Reigns Retries an AIDS-Era Scapegoat
Tim Miller interviews author Steven Reigns.
MoreThe Knights of the Clock: An Update
A LETTER to the Editor in the January-February 2010 issue of this magazine sparked my interest in the Knights of the Clock, America’s first integrated gay and lesbian social club, founded in Los Angeles in the early 1950s. …
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Meet Molly Dewson, New Deal Reformer
WAS SHE or wasn’t she? Again, we face that vexing question regarding the lives of lesbians and gay men, in this case of Molly Dewson, who was known as “the General” in the era of the New Deal. Dewson is the subject of a book by historian Susan Ware that suddenly seems relevant, which prompted me to seek a conversation with the author of Partner and I: Molly Dewson, Feminism, and New Deal Politics (Yale 1987).
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Anna Howard Shaw: The Forgotten Suffragist
ANNA HOWARD SHAW (1847–1919) aptly titled her autobiography The Story of a Pioneer because she was the consummate trailblazer. A poor immigrant, a frontier settler, an ordained female minister, a self-made woman in an age of self-made men, a renowned feminist orator and voting rights activist, she was also a lesbian whose orientation was hidden in plain sight. …
MoreStop Straightwashing Susan B. Anthony
THE LEGENDARY FEMINIST Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) is too often the silenced queer elephant in the room of U.S. history. As we observe the 200th anniversary of her birth, which was on February 15th, it’s important to ask ourselves whether we as a society are finally willing to see her not only as a heroic fighter for women’s suffrage but also as a lesbian.
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