The Many Genders of Old India
TRADITIONAL INDIAN CULTURE is replete with legends and mythologies where heroes and heroines have chosen various genders without guilt, and their choices have been accepted and respected by the community.…More
Browsing: History
Blog Posts
Letters to the Editor
If They Mated: Carson and Gypsy To the Editor: I was glad to see David Kaplan’s piece on Tennessee Williams’ friendships [in the Jan.-Feb. 2015 issue], including his…More
Do Tell: Recovering GLBT History
RECOVERING or reframing history-creating a “people’s history”-has been important for all identity-based social movements, but it’s been crucial and particularly revelatory for the GLBT movement. …
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Alexander Hamilton’s Smoking Gun
PERHAPS no American icon has had more speculation raised (and dismissed) about his sexual orientation than Alexander Hamilton. This controversial Founding Father left behind an abundance of questions after dying a premature death following an ill-fated duel with political rival Aaron Burr. Hamilton’s story is one that cries out for re-examination and that may be ripe for revision. …
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The Women Who Took On the APA
… Today, [Kay Tobin] Lahusen continues the work, putting together a photographic history of the early days of gay activism for the New York Public Library. The APA continues to evolve. …
MoreLincoln vs. Douglas: Who Was Gayer?
THE POLITICS OF ILLINOIS from the 1830’s to 1850’s can provide a good case study of attitudes toward gays-partly because the region was then a part of the American West, where political discussion was almost unrestrained, and partly because participants included some of the most famous characters in American history.
Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln’s famous political adversary and debating opponent, could be quite uninhibited in public in his physical contact with men. …
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Short reviews
Reviews of Great Speeches on Gay Rights, Over the Rainbow: Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature, and Shades of Love.
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Men under Arms with Bonaparte
THE FIRST THING I liked about this book was its interpretative honesty. It is a work of solid historiography and level-headed literary analysis.
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A Cause for Living
IN A SAVING REMNANT, historian Martin Duberman offers a fascinating dual biography of two left-wing activists and writers, Barbara Deming and David McReynolds.
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How the West Won
THIS EXTENDED ESSAY explores the competing visions of Socrates and Jesus, demonstrating how their debate, continued by their philosophical ancestors over two millennia, helped shape Western culture into the uniquely argumentative, individualistic force it would become by the time of the Enlightenment.
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