The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement (Social Movements Past & Present) - Softcover

Adam, Barry D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805797157 ISBN 13: 9780805797152

Publisher: Twayne Publishers, 1987

Synopsis

A comprehensive portrait of the fight for gay rights, from its origins in Germany in the 1890's to its development as a worldwide phenomenon today (1987)

About this title

From the Back Cover

The past decade has seen a wealth of changes in the gay and lesbian movement and a remarkable growth in gay and lesbian studies. In response to this heightened activity Barry D. Adam has updated his 1987 study of the movement to offer a critical reflection on strategies and objectives that have been developed for the protection and welfare of those who love others of their own sex. This revised volume addresses the movement's recovery of momentum in the wake of New Right campaigns and its gains in human rights and domestic partners' legislation in several countries; the impact of AIDS on movement issues and strategies and the renewal of militant tactics through AIDS activism and Queer Nation; internal debates that continually shift the meanings composing homosexual, gay, lesbian, and queer identities and cultures; the proliferation of new movement groups in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa; and new developments in historical scholarship that are enriching our understanding of same-sex bonding in the past. Adam delineates the formation of gay and lesbian movements as truly a world phenomenon, exploring their histories in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Scandinavia, Australia, and countries for which very little information about the activities of gay men and lesbians has been made available. In this global picture of the mobilization of homosexuals Adam identifies the critical factors that have given personal and historical subjectivity to desire, that have shaped the faces and territories of homosexual people, and that have generated homophobia and heterosexism. Treating the sociological aspects of the rise of the gay and lesbian movement, Adamalso looks at "new social movements" theory in relation to the gay and lesbian movement and cultural nationalism - whether in the form of cultural feminism or queer nationalism - which he considers an important, perhaps inevitable, moment in the empowerment of inferiorized people.

From Library Journal

Although the Stonewall riots in New York City in June 1969 are generally considered the beginning of the Gay Liberation movement, "the first social movement to advance the civil rights of gay people was found in Germany in 1897." Amplifying John Lauritsen and David Thorstad's excellent Early Homosexual Rights Movement (1864-1935) (1974), sociologist Adam reviews the social, historic, and economic conditions surrounding the development of gay rights worldwide. Using secondary sources, he interweaves individuals, episodes, and examples into an overall picture, chronicling the fits and starts of lesbian and gay rights movements to the present. An extensive list of references supplements the annotated selected bibliography of this comprehensive international history. James E. Van Buskirk, Acad. of Art Coll. Lib., San Francisco
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Twayne Publishers
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0805797157
• ISBN 13: 9780805797152
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 203