While New York Slept
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Gay L.A.:  A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians
by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons
Basic Books. 431 pages, $27.50

CO-AUTHORS Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons have written an ambitious and groundbreaking book that should at last give Los Angeles the prominence it has long deserved in gay history. Indeed the modern gay movement may be said to have been born in L.A. with the founding of the Mattachine Society in 1950 and of ONE, Inc. in 1952, and with the publication of its magazine, ONE, in 1953.

In 1994 Jim Kepner’s International Gay & Lesbian Archives (begun with his collection in 1942 and opened to researchers in the 1970’s) merged with ONE to become what is now ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. It is the oldest gay organization still operating in the U.S., and it is close to being the oldest in the world.