[I originally intended this to be my October column, to make up for the anticipated controversy surrounding my column on Gabriello Rotello's Sexual Ecology, which actually wound up getting published afterwards, in October.]
The Gay Crusaders: in-depth interviews with 15 homosexuals - men and women who are shaping America's newest sexual revolution., ed. by Kay Tobin and Randy Wicker, 1972, Library of Congress Catalog Number 79-187694, published by Coronet Communications, Inc. under the "Paperback Library" label.
This book was reprinted (hardback) in 1975 by the Arno Press Series on Homosexuality: Lesbians and Gay Men in Society, History and Literature and is available via Amazon.
This month, I tackle one of the greatest works of queer history ever written, "The Gay Crusaders", by Kay Tobin. It is truly tragic that this hasn't been available in a mass market edition since its original publication in 1972.
Jack Nichols, the pioneering editor of "Gay", and current editor of GayToday on the web, calls this "a book of seminal biographies of leading lesbian and gay activists, those who dared to seize the moment during a particularly critical period of social change."
QueerTheory.Com calls it the "first-and so far only-collection of biographical sketches of American Gay activists" ... my knowledge of the literature doesn't qualify me to dispute this, but I sincerely hope this isn't the case.
In summary: beg, borrow or steal a copy of this book, and read it, twice. This is living breathing history in its most vivid and raw form - the biographical sketches in question were compiled from late 1971 to early 1972, and are a breathtaking and inspiring portrait of a newly emergent queer america. This is exactly the type of material I hope to find when I pick an old paperback out of the library.
From the Table of Contents (descriptions are mine):
Notable elements: photographs - 16 pages of black and white photos, including photos from the 2nd Annual Christopher Street parade (aka Gay Pride)!!! Wow!
As I read down the list of people interviewed, not one of them was anyone I knew anything about... at best, I have a vague recognition of a name. And yet, these are people that queers my age (30) should know about. I felt like I was recovering my history by reading this book. After reading the first two interviews, I was so excited, I had to put the book down and run off the energy I'd built up.
What struck me, aside from how incredibly compelling each and every person's story was, is how fresh and relevant this book is: so many of the causes these pioneers fought for, are still at the top of our agenda; so many of the issues that the community had, internal to itself then, we still have; and how truly radical these pioneers were - no hesitation whatsoever about being gay or lesbian, out and proud and loud and mad as hell and doing something about it. Wow. Truly inspirational stuff.
The book does have a few weaknesses - most glaringly, it is almost entirely East Coast centric - Harry Hay isn't interviewed (among others you might logically think should have been included), and the gender balance is off (4 of 15 people profiled) although the selections in question give a good picture of the emerging divisions between gay men and lesbian women, especially the interview with Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin.
Nothing else I've read, other than "The Trouble with Harry Hay", provides such a vivid picture of the early days of the gay movement. If you care about our history, you've got to read this book.
An interesting historical note that shows how far we've come: Kay Tobin wrote and edited this book on her own; the publisher, for commercial reasons, demanded a male byline, so she picked Randy Wicker, a man she was familiar with (having dealt with him before).
For an update on the book's subjects (many of whom continue to be active contributors to the queer community), including photos, see:
"THE GAY CRUSADERS TODAY", by Jesse Monteagudo, Nov. 29, 1999
For a selection of profiles and commentary by Jack Nichols (one of the activists featured in this book) and others, see The Gay Today History Project Series - this is a rich and wonderful resource, I spent several hours browsing through it last night.