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On a Friday evening, June 27th, 1969, a New York City police force raided a popular
hangout, the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall was a gay bar, and its patrons were gay men,
lesbians, drag queens, and neighborhood artists. Raids on gay bars by the police were not
unusual in 1969; in fact, they were conducted quite regularly, without much resistance and
with the police usually getting paid off by patrons who were not "out" and bar
owners who didn't want to lose business.
However, on the night of June 27th, the Stonewall Inn erupted. The bar regulars and their
friends fought back. A possible explanation for the resistance is that the bar was
especially crowded on this night, as many gay men were memorializing and eulogizing icon
Judy Garland who died several days earlier. Whatever the reason, the backlash against the
police and the nights of protest that followed have come to be known as the Stonewall
Riots.
Prior to that summer, there was little public expression of the lives and experiences of
gays and lesbians. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation
movement, a movement that has transformed the oppression of gays and lesbians into calls
for pride and action. The astonishing flowering of gay culture since 1969 has changed this
country and beyond, forever. In 1999, President Bill Clinton officially named June as Gay
and Lesbian Pride Month. Earlier that same year, the National Park Service added the
Stonewall Inn as well as the nearby park and neighborhood streets surrounding it to the
National Register of Historic Places.
In honor of this year's gay and lesbian pride month, Bookreporter.com has compiled a round
up of new and notable titles written by gay and lesbian authors and/or addressing gay and
lesbian themes.
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FICTION --
DUPONT CIRCLE
Paul Kafka-Gibbons
Houghton Mifflin Co (Trade)
ISBN: 0395869323
HOW MANY DIE
R. D. Skillings
University Press of New England
ISBN: 1584650656
SLAMMERKIN
Emma Donoghue
Harcourt Brace
ISBN: 0151006725
IN THE CITY OF SHY HUNTERS
Tom Spanbauer
Grove Press
ISBN: 0802116914
FROSTING ON THE CAKE
Karin Kallmaker
Naiad Press
ISBN: 1562802666
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MEMOIR --
THE ROOM LIT BY ROSES: A Journal of Pregnancy and Birth
Carole Maso
Counterpoint Press
ISBN: 1582430888
PEDRO AND ME: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned
Judd Winick
Henry Holt (Paper)
ISBN: 0805064036
BROKEN FEVER: Reflections of Gay Boyhood
James Morrison
St. Martin's Press (Trade)
ISBN: 0312261292
THE TRUTH IS...: My Life in Love and Music
Melissa Etheridge
Villard Books
ISBN: 0375505997
STITCHING A REVOLUTION: The Making of an Activist
Cleve Jones
Harper San Francisco
ISBN: 0062516426
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NONFICTION --
THE SCARLET PROFESSOR: Newton Arvin: A Literary Life Shattered by Scandal
Barry Werth
Doubleday
ISBN: 0385494688
THE GIRLS: Sappho Goes to Hollywood
Diana McLellan
St. Martin's Press (Trade)
ISBN: 0312246471
TRULY WILDE: The Unsettling Story of Dolly Wilde, Oscar's Unusual Niece
Joan Schenkar
Basic Books
ISBN: 0465087728
LOSING MATT SHEPARD: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder
Beth Loffreda
Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231118589
THE STRANGER NEXT DOOR: The Story of a Small Community's Battle over Sex, Faith and Civil Rights
Arlene Stein
Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807079529
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Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
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