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John R. Killacky interviews the curator of The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869–1939, Jonathan D. Katz.

Between 1864 and late 1866, Karl Maria Kertbeny and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs had a sustained correspondence, which has mostly not survived. It is likely that they used the opportunity to discuss sexuality and activism.

THE EMERGENCE of both the lesbian and the woman artist as recognizable demographics in 19th-century Europe and the United States was the product of revolutionary developments in the realms of civil rights and image-making. The ascent of the first feminist movements, the opening of art academies to women, and the democratization of photography converged toMore

AMRITA SHER-GIL’S striking beauty and moody self-portraits have linked her to Frida Kahlo in the popular imagination. Both are examples of flamboyant painters who were fearlessly bisexual and exploited the medium of self-portraiture to tell the story of their turbulent lives in the male-dominated art world of the prewar years.

Diaghilev’s closest collaborators came from his intimate circle. Dmitry Filosofov (1872–1940), later an influential critic, and Konstantin Somov (1869–1939), the son of a Hermitage Museum curator, were among the most prominent. Their artistic and intellectual influences were diverse. Somov was drawn to the sentimentalism of the 18th century—the world of Antoine Watteau and Jean LouisMore

Queer artists and writers of period like Yoshiya, Kashō, Otake, and Tadaoto sought to make sense of the enormous changes wrought by the Meiji Restoration and its consequences. In the decades preceding them, Japan had gone from a culture with multiple traditions of male-male love to a deeply heteronormative society.

Inspired by Demaría’s research into this erased history, in 2019 the photographer Claudio Larrea produced a series that speculatively recreated Ballvé Piñero’s homoerotic snapshots of the early 1940s (Figure 2). Los cuerpos del delito, a double entendre referring to “bodies of the crime” and “bodies of evidence,” insists on the ways that masculine subjects andMore

The Impressionist painter Florence Carlyle (1864–1923) is the first homosexual artist on record in Canadian history. Her œuvre reveals an unrelenting interest in the erotic and emotional lives of women, especially of her lover Judith Hastings. Take, for instance, The Threshold of 1912 (Figure 1), a chef-d’œuvre of Canadian Impressionism.

When Ford picked up stakes and went to New York or Paris for months at a time, he brought Indra with him. When he moved into another house in Chania, Crete, he brought Indra, who again took over as houseman and companion—though never as lover. This was in the mid-1970s, and both Paris and ManhattanMore

A photograph of Lorde in front of a blackboard on which is written “Women are powerful and dangerous” has become a familiar, widely shared image. In response to attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and women’s and LGBT rights, the words of the self-described “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” have lately gone viral, turningMore

A SINEWY MAN stands erect with a serene gaze. He has a massive book propped against his muscular left thigh and he appears to have a toga draped around his body. As I approach this statue (standing in a corner of the chapel of the University of Milan), I realize that he is not justMore

The crises faced by Cather’s characters seem remarkably similar to those of our own times. If all you know of her work is the novels you read in high school, these essays might motivate you to read the rest of her œuvre. Rereading her novels, I’m struck by how relevant they remain, and how womenMore

Best known as a writer and illustrator, Edward Gorey (1925–2000) was also a theater enthusiast. He designed the sets and costumes for Broadway’s Dracula, winning the 1978 Tony Award for Best Costume Design.

Vaid writes incisively and critically about identity-based movements and the need to form coalitions and find common purpose with other minorities that society has left and continues to leave behind. Without such coalition-building, she argues, identity-based politics “does not lead to liberatory outcomes.”

IT HAS BEEN SAID that the three stages of sex are feel, squeal, and congeal. All are abundantly present in Edmund White’s new collection of mini-memoirs. The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir rises to the challenge of its subtitle by being both an enjoyable memoir and a lively book about sex, which the authorMore

PIRKKO SAISIO is huge in Finland. The writer, director, and actress rivals Touko Laaksonen (Tom of Finland) as a national queer icon and has been honored in her homeland with numerous awards. With the rolling publication of her Helsinki trilogy in English translations, Two Lines Press is giving English-reading audiences a substantial introduction to Saisio’sMore

Kuiper’s poems almost always address a person, but often the addressee is left unidentified.

SOME OF US who came out in the 1960s and ’70s are still here, and there are enough of us to constitute a significant demographic in American society. Yet only rarely are the lives of older gay men portrayed in our fiction.

EMMA COPLEY EISENBERG, a New York City native, now seems firmly rooted in Philadelphia, where she/they cofounded “a community hub for the literary arts.” Her connections to both cities are evident in her new novel ...

Even his essays on writers that he doesn’t know personally are insightful. In “The Poetry of Constantine Cavafy,” he notices that Cavafy uses rare words that readers would nevertheless know “by analogy.”

THE GLOBAL FIGHT Against LGBTI Rights is based on ten years of intensive research, including firsthand contacts with groups working both for and against strengthening LGBT rights.

What Meischen offers in Nopalito, Texas is his own foothold on a path to hope and understanding. It is an impressive accomplishment, achieved through the creation of several indelible characters.

Brief reviews of GOOD PICTURES ARE A STRONG WEAPON: Laura Gilpin, Queerness, and Navajo Sovereignty by Louise Siddons, and THE SUMMER BETWEEN: A Novel by Robert Raasch.

IN LIGHT OF the censorship battles that the queer community has faced in bygone eras, the Trump Administration’s recent acts of scrubbing government websites of key parts of our history have created an unwanted sense of déjà vu. Our shared sense of history is already fragile enough. While the concurrence is unintended, the arrival ofMore

Without spoiling both series, Black Doves ends with a sacrificial act, on Sam’s part, to ensure Helen’s safety, while Prime Target will shock you inasmuch as Adam’s closeness to Ed may or may not be a Judas kiss.

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  THIS ISSUE of The G&LR, of which I am the guest editor, spotlights an art exhibition that I co-curated (with Johnny Willis) titled The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869–1939 (open May 2–July 26, 2025, across three floors of the Wrightwood 659 museum in Chicago).             Before the word “homosexual” firstMore

            The Lavender Scare is an example of what sociologists refer to as a “moral panic,” which happens when a perceived social threat is singled out and exaggerated until the public comes to regard it as a serious danger to physical safety and to society’s core values. The response to a moral panic typically involvesMore

            In the 3rd century, Saint Eugene, also known as Eugenia of Rome, lived as a man in a monastery—traces of his cult and the sepulture of one of his eunuch companions have been discovered in the catacombs of Rome—before having to reveal his birth gender by exposing his breasts to prove his innocence inMore