Jim Downs, Stand By Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation

Posted on February 5, 2017 by pordo

“The sheer act of Downs’ acknowledging that not all gay men subscribed to the popular ‘three Big Bs’ of the time—‘the Bars, Beaches, and Baths’—and found their identity validated and articulated through the communal practices of Christian worship and cultural hubs is a refreshing and invigorating experience. Stand By Me proves a deeply moving read.”

—San Francisco Chronicle

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About Us

Welcome to the homepage of the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History, an affiliated society of the American Historical Association.

The Committee on Lesbian and Gay History was founded in 1979 to promote the study of homosexuality in the past and present by facilitating communication among scholars in a variety of disciplines working on a variety of cultures.

The name of the committee was changed to Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History in January 2009, and to The LGBTQ+ History Association in 2024.

Since 1982, the Committee has been officially recognized as an affiliate of the American Historical Association and meets annually in conjunction with the AHA conference, where we sponsor sessions on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer history. One need not be a member of the AHA to join the Committee.

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New Member Publications

Johnson, Emily Suzanne, This is Our Message: Women's Leadership in the New Christian Right

Women have been at the forefront of the modern religious right since its emergence in the 1970s. This book examines the careers of six prominent conservative evangelical women over the past fifty years. Their stories act as microcosms for the movement as a whole, including its complicated relationship with sexuality; from Marabel Morgan’s spicy (but firmly heterosexual) sex advice, to Anita Bryant’s anti-gay-rights campaign, to Tammy Faye Bakker’s surprising second act as a queer icon.

Riseman, Noah, Shirleene Robinson, and Graham Willett, Serving in Silence? Australian LGBT Servicemen and Women

This is the first book to examine the histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who served in the Australian armed forces in the post-Second World War era. It uses four life stories to chart the changing experiences of LGBT service members, from times of tolerance, witch-hunts, abuse, through to the present-day when the Australian Defence Force advocates policies of inclusion.

Newsome, Jake W. Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Pink Triangle Legacies traces the transformation of the pink triangle from a Nazi concentration camp badge and emblem of discrimination into a widespread, recognizable symbol of queer activism, pride, and community. W. Jake Newsome provides an overview of the Nazis' targeted violence against LGBTQ+ people and details queer survivors' fraught and ongoing fight for the acknowledgement, compensation, and memorialization of LGBTQ+ victims.

Ross, Andrew Israel, Public City/Public Sex: Prostitution, Homosexuality, and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris

This book traces the struggle to control sex in public and argues that it was the very effort to police the city that created new opportunities for women who sold sex and men who sought sex with other men. Placing public sex at the center of urban history, Ross shows how those who used public spaces played a central role in defining the way the city was understood.