June is LGBTQ Pride Month in the US, so we’ve collected some of our most popular stories on a range of topics—from pronouns to politics—that highlight the history of the LGBTQ community. As always, links to free JSTOR scholarship are included with each of these.
How LGBTQ+ Activists Got “Homosexuality” out of the DSM
May 26, 2021
The first DSM, created in 1952, established a hierarchy of sexual deviancies, vaulting heterosexual behavior to an idealized place in American culture.
“There Was Grit and Talent Galore”
June 18, 2020
Lindsy Van Gelder—author of that famous New York Post article about bra-burning feminists—reflects on the alternative LGBTQ+ press of the 1970s.
The Origins of LGBTQ-Affirming Churches
March 23, 2021
As far back as the 1940s, religious LGBTQ people organized groups and congregations that welcomed them.
In The Gay Cookbook, Domestic Bliss Was Queer
January 10, 2021
Chef Lou Rand Hogan whipped up well-seasoned wit and served a gay take on home life during the early-1960s craze for camp.
Julie Enszer: “We Couldn’t Get Them Printed,” So We Learned to Print Them Ourselves
June 19, 2020
The editor of the lesbian feminist magazine Sinister Wisdom talked to us about lesbian print culture, feminist collectives, and revolution.
In Han Dynasty China, Bisexuality Was the Norm
June 10, 2020
So tender was Emperor Ai’s love for his "male companion" that, when he had to get up, instead of waking his lover, he cut off the sleeve of his robe.
Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered
January 29, 2020
The queer history of the pansy and other flowers.
Community Care in the AIDS Crisis
January 20, 2021
The Shanti Project’s work in caring for people with AIDS provides valuable lessons in the efficacy of mutual aid in fighting disease.
Filmmaker Marlon Riggs: “Notice Is Served”
June 11, 2020
The award-winning Black gay filmmaker, author, and activist Marlon Riggs left a legacy of protest against racism and homophobia.
The Lavender Scare
November 18, 2019
In 1950, the U.S. State Department fired 91 employees because they were homosexual or suspected of being homosexual.
What’s Behind the Very Real Butch Quarantine Hair Crisis?
April 25, 2020
What's a masculine lesbian to do when her hair starts getting too long? Look at history for inspiration.
Anthropologists Hid African Same-Sex Relationships
July 5, 2019
Sex between people of the same gender has existed for millennia. But anthropologists in sub-Saharan Africa often ignored or distorted those relationships.
Notes on Queer Conception and the Redefinition of Family
January 27, 2021
Feminist scholars refer to the “intensely communal, queer, and playful nature” of DIY LGBTQ conception, but Fertility, Inc. is another story.
How Families with Two Dads Raise Their Kids
June 16, 2019
Research reveals few differences between the parenting of gay men and their straight peers.
The Stonewall Riots Didn’t Start the Gay Rights Movement
June 12, 2019
Giving Stonewall too much credit misses the movement’s growing strength in the 1960s, sociologists note.
Pulp Fiction Helped Define American Lesbianism
August 1, 2019
Between 1950 and 1965, steamy novels about lesbian relationships, marketed to men, inadvertently offered closeted women much-needed representation.
Book Club Made Me Gay
June 21, 2017
Book clubs and reading groups have long been important to marginalized communities.
Queer Time: The Alternative to “Adulting”
January 10, 2018
What constitutes adulthood has never been self-evident or value-neutral. Queer lives follow their own temporal logic.
Lesbianism (!) at the Convent
May 16, 2018
Mother Superior Benedetta Carlini, a visionary nun of Renaissance Italy, was accused of heresy and “female sodomy.”
The Forgotten Gender Nonconformists of the Old West
April 27, 2018
In the Old West, cross-dressing was sometimes a disguise for criminals on the lam. But, one historian argues, in many cases these “cross-dressers” were probably people who we would identify as transgender today.
