Unlocking Lincoln’s Sexuality
The following is the Preface from the recently published book by C. A. Tripp, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln (Free Press, 2005).
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Origins of the Kinsey Revolution
IN THE LATE 1930’s, Alfred Kinsey had what he thought was a rather simple idea: given that no one had the slightest idea what people really did and did not do sexually, and given-as he discovered from a questionnaire he distributed to his students-that a lack of simple information about sex was causing massive confusion and heartache, why not do a survey that would provide some hard information about people’s sexual practices? Why not discuss the unmentionable and replace ignorance and myths about sex with information and education?
MoreWhat Now for Marriage Equality?
NEARLY 5,000 same-sex couples have been issued licenses to marry in Massachusetts since May 17, 2004, a development that has unleashed waves of political backlash as leaders have tried to undermine the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Goodridge. But …
MoreListening to the “Yes on 36” Voter
DID THE 2004 ELECTION demonstrate that Americans oppose gay rights? After traveling to Oregon and spending ten days volunteering with the effort to defeat that state’s anti-gay constitutional amendment, I came away concluding that this was not the case. …
MoreDiary of an Unassimilated Traveler
It’s the first meeting of the school year for the LGBT student group, and their lounge is completely packed …
MoreBreakthrough: The 1979 National March
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, on October 14, 1979, an estimated 75,000 to 125,000 lesbians and gay men from all across America marched on Washington at a moment in the movement’s history that was remarkably different from the current one. …
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Cultivating One’s Metaphors
EMILY DICKINSON inhabited a world of daisies, calla lilies, bourbon roses, sweet sultans, and verbena (among other flowers), not only in her symbolic use of such flowers in her poetry, but literally, as a horticulturalist who spent many hours cultivating her garden. …
MoreTreasures of the Overlooked
I SAT DOWN to read American Ghosts with high expectations. Here, after all, is the personal story of David Plante, author of fourteen books, including the famed Francoeur Trilogy, The Ghost of Henry James, The Catholic, Difficult Women, and The Family. …
MoreThe Antiquarians
WILL FELLOWS’ A Passion to Preserve is really two books. One looks at living gay men who have devoted their lives to restoring and preserving old houses and other American antiquities. The other documents some similar men who did the same sort of work in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. …
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Adam and Steve
GILGAMESH IS the first significant work of literature in history-not Western history, but all of history-an epic that was first written down (ca. 2100 BCE) over a thousand years before The Iliad and The Odyssey or the Bible. …
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