IN THE EPILOGUE to his 1995 book, The Pink and the Black, which was arguably the first real history of the gay-rights movement in France, Frédéric Martel questions the notion of “gay pride.” …

THERE’S an arresting portrait of Harry Count Kessler, painted by Edvard Munch in 1906, that hangs in the Nationalgalerie, Berlin. A handsome, mustached, fine-featured man looks at us from beneath a rakishly tilted white summer hat. Wearing a dark suit, leaning slightly on a stylish thin cane, Count Kessler is elegant and impeccable, and appears younger than his 38 years. …