cover image Long Road to Freedom: The Advocate History of the Gay and Lesbian Movement

Long Road to Freedom: The Advocate History of the Gay and Lesbian Movement

. St. Martin's Press, $40 (420pp) ISBN 978-0-312-09536-9

The Advocate , which was to become the country's most prominent gay and lesbian news-magazine, was a two-year-old Los Angeles newsletter when the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village initiated the gay rights movement in 1969. This engrossing and profusely illustrated book documents the increasingly prominent and embattled place of gays and lesbians in American culture. Each year is introduced by a prominent gay or lesbian figure and headed with an annotated timeline, excerpts of articles from the Advocate , photographs and profiles of such prominent figures as author Edmund White; San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, who was assassinated in 1977; AIDS activist and playwright Larry Kramer; and performers like k. d. lang, Sylvester and Madonna. From Stonewall's galvanizing effect on the movement to assaults on the gay community by the religious right and AIDS; from celebrations of disco, Fire Island and the quiet bravery of openly gay citizens everywhere, this chronicle is a stirring scrapbook of a movement whose greatest victories may yet be to come. $50,000 ad/ promo. (May)