Becoming Visible: 1an Illustrated History of Lesbians and Gay Men in 20th Century America

This handsomely illustrated survey began as a 1994 New York Public Library exhibit, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the riot at Greenwich Village's Stonewall Inn, now commonly considered the birth of the modern gay and lesbian movement. McGarry and Wasserman, who co-curated the exhibition, open with a chapter on Stonewall itself, then furnish a section on ""labeling and policing"" before beginning their broad, swift exposition of gay and lesbian culture and activism. Their efforts cover a litany of familiar topics: 1920s Harlem; 1950s butch-femme culture; the polite ""homophile"" activism of the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis; the rise of the gay bar; the rise and fall of the bathhouse; ""physique magazines""; lesbian feminism and separatism; the continuing fight for queer civil rights; and AIDS, HIV and ACT-UP. The authors are careful to note the links between gay and lesbian movements and other political struggles, albeit quickly. Though it's hardly a coffee-table book, the volume does not pretend to present original arguments or deep analysis of the now-thriving field of gay and lesbian history (though they do cite many of the field's authorities). Nor do McGarry and Wasserman delve into the particular experiences of, say, Mexican-American lesbians or gay composers. And their focus on pictures and documents leads them to concentrate on recent decades, from which more evidence survives, but which skews their focus toward those who had the means for self-documentation and enough cultural capital to be themselves. But their clear prose and their trove of visual sources (many never before published)--from old photos of ""Boston marriages"" to covers of Diseased Pariah News--give this attractive entry into a crowded field its raison d' tre. (Oct.)