 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | The exhortation to "Go West!" has always sparked the American imagination. But for gays, lesbians, and transgendered people, the City of Angels provided a special home and gave rise to one of the most influential gay cultures in the world. Drawing on rare archives and photographs as well as more than three hundred interviews, Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons chart L.A.'s unique gay history, from the first missionary encounters with Native American cross-gendered "two spirits" to cross-dressing frontier women in search of their fortunes; from the bohemian freedom of early Hollywood to the explosion of gay life during World War II to the underground radicalism set off by the 1950s blacklist; and from the 1960s gay liberation movement to the creation of gay marketing in the 1990s. |
Average Customer Rating:   Great history of gay, lesbian, bi and transgender history in LA I learned a lot about gay history in LA. Would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. Very thorough. A Good Read Lillian Faderman has done it again. She has done her research well and has written a very readable history of gays in LA. I [Cleo Manago] am misrepresented in this book, and have never met the authors. Gay culture and books in too many cases are full of fiction, undocumented info. and just made up stuff. I have never met nor have ever heard of this book's authors Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons. If they decide to expand on this book, hopefully they will do the unusual in this gay-literature realm and actually talk to me. I am not a gay activist, as I am referenced (though I am a community activist) and their depiction of the Black community parade I was involved in is absolutely incorrect. Gay L.A. Too often San Francisco is noted as being the leader in the contemporary Gay/Lesbian movement in California. This book, GAY L.A., proves that there was and is more than one large city in our fine State that has played a significant role in the gay movement. Succinct and fascinating, Gay L.A. is a must read! Go West GO WEST
Faderman, Lillian and Timmons, Stuart, "Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians". Basic Books, 2006.
Amos Lassen
We so badly need a sense of history and Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons give a bit of one in their sprawling study of "Gay L.A." Los Angeles is responsible for much of what we know of as gay life today, so it is fitting that the history of gay L.A. parallels the history of gay America. Beginning in the 188os gay culture took root in Los Angeles and it really has not moved from there. So much of what is part of gay American history happened in Tinseltown that L.A. rightfully deserves to wear the crown designating her "The Queen City".
This is not the first book about L.A. and there have been other books that have claimed that gay life really began inside of their borders but after reading this book it is hard to imagine anywhere else holding title to the term of the city that began the modern gay world. Style, image and politics of the modern gay liberation movement began there and flourish there to this day.
The history of gay L.A, was formulated by the authors who interviewed over 300 people--some famous and some just regular people. It is from what they heard in these interviews that the authors claim that L.A, and her suburbs ultimately launched the modern age of gay life. By using this as a basis for their book, they provide a new way of looking at our history and our culture which gives L.A. the designation she so rightfully has earned and deserves.
Looking at his book as part of our historical heritage, I am forced as well as pleased to call it definitive. The writers are well grounded in their fields and write with authority. The information presented is endless and the book makes you want to go on and do more research yourself. Beginning in the early history of our country that take us back to pre-America where we learn of gender roles among the Indians and Spanish missionaries. As they move into the modern age they bring us up to date with all of our history on the West coast. Perhaps the work is not academic or scholarly but it presents so many facts that are just amazing to read. It is a wonderful study of a wonderful place where we, quite early in our history, were allowed to be who we are. Here is both a necessary and essential contribution to our history. Most important of all the book shows how we, the gay community, developed a political conscience. There is so much information here that other books will pale in comparison. The fact that Los Angeles was an important place in the struggle for us to gain equal rights is emphasized and often drawn upon.
Faderman and Stout include information that other writers have omitted or for some reason decided not to write about. This is the story of what was good in L.A. as well as what was not. It is an important book because in order to understand the mindsets of today's gays and lesbians we must know the past. Keep in mind that the past becomes the present and the present becomes the future and that all these periods of time are relative. Yet the periods of time in the history of Los Angeles coincide with the same periods of time elsewhere and I wonder if we still would have had the same events if Los Angeles had not had them first.
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