History of the Homophile Era (1950–1965): Notable Works

by C. Todd White, Ph.D.

First compiled through research for Pre-Gay L.A.

Alwood, Edward

1996. Straight News: Gays, Lesbians, and the News Media. New York: Columbia University Press.

“Anomaly”

1948. The Circle of Sex. San Francisco: Pan-Graphic Press.

Armstrong, Elizabeth A.

2002. Forging Gay Identities: Organizing Sexuality in San Francisco, 1950–1994. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Arthur, Gavin

1948. The Invert. London: Baillere, Tindall and Cox. (Parts were orig, published in 1927.)

Atkins, Gary L.

2003. Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Bérubé, Allan

1991. Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two. New York: Plume.

Boyd, Nan Alamilla

2003. Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Branson, Helen P.

1957. Gay Bar. San Francisco: Pan-Graphic Press

Bullough, Vern L.

1979. Homosexuality: A History. New York: New Meridian Library.

—. editor. Judith M. Saunders and Sharon Valente, assoc. editors. C. Todd White, asst. editor.

Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press.

Cain, Paul D.

2002. Leading the Parade: Conversations with America’s Most Influential Lesbians and Gay Men. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. (Forward by Jack Nichols.)

Chesser, Eustace

1959. Odd Man Out: Homosexuality in Men and Women. London: Victor Gollancz.

D’Emilio, John

1983. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

2002. The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Duberman, Martin

1991 [1986]. About Time: Exploring the Gay Past. New York: Meridian.

1993. Stonewall. New York: Dutton.

Duberman, Martin Bauml; Martha Vicinus; and George Chauncy, Jr.

1989. Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past. New York: New American Library.

Faderman, Lillian and Stuart Timmons

2005. Gay L. A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. New York: Basic Books.

Fone, Byrne R. S.

1995. A Road to Stonewall: Male Homosexuality and Homophobia in English and American Literature, 1750–1969. New York: Twayne Publishers.

Gallo, Marcia

2006. Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement. New York: Carroll & Graf.

Gerassi, John

1966. The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice, and Folly in an American City. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Hansen, Joseph

1998. A Few Doors West of Hope: The Life and Times of Dauntless Don Slater. Universal City, CA: Homosexual Information Center.

Hay, Harry (with Will Roscoe)

1996. Radically Gay: Gay Liberation in the Words of its Founder. Boston: Beacon Press.

Humphreys, Laud

1972. Out of the Closets: The Sociology of Homosexual Liberation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Hurewitz, Daniel

2007. Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Jorgensen, Christine

2000 [1967]. Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography. San Francisco: Cleis Press. Introduction by Susan Stryker.

Johnson, David K.

2004. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kaiser, Charles

1998. The Gay Metropolis 1940–1996. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson.

Katz, Jonathan Ned

1972. Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. New York: Meridian Books. (Revised in 1992.)

1983. Gay/Lesbian Almanac: A New Documentary. New York: Harper and Row.

1996. The Invention of Heterosexuality. New York: Dutton.

Kennedy, Elizabeth Lapovsky and Madeline D. Davis.

1993. Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold: The History of a Lesbian Community. New York: Routledge.

Kepner, Jim

1998. Rough News, Daring Views: 1950s’ Pioneer Gay Press Journalism. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park Press.

Legg, W. Dorr

Homosexuals Today 1956: A Handbook of Organizations & Publications. Los Angeles: ONE, Incorporated.

Legg, W. Dorr, with Walter L. Williams, David G. Cameron, and Donald C. Paul

Homophile Studies in Theory and Practice. San Francisco: ONE Institute Press and GLB Publishers.

Marcus, Eric

1992. Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945–1990. An Oral History. New York: HarperCollins.

2002. Making Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights. New York: Perennial.

Murdoch, Joyce and Deb Price

2001. Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court. New York: Basic Books.

Murray, Stephen O.

2012. Pieces for a History of Gay Studies. Amazon Digital Services.

Nardi, Peter M., David Sanders, and Judd Marmor

1994. Growing Up Before Stonewall: Life Stories of Some Gay Men. New York: Routledge.

Nealon, Christopher

2001. Foundlings: Lesbian and Gay Historical Emotion Before Stonewall. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Newton, Esther

1993. Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America’s First Gay and Lesbian Town. Boston: Beacon Press.

Sears, James T.

2007. Behind the Mask of the Mattachine: The Hal Call Chronicles and the Early Movement for Homosexual Emancipation. Binghampton, NY: Harrington Park Press.

Streitmatter, Rodger

1995. Unspeakable: The Rise of the Gay and Lesbian Press in America. Boston: Faber and Faber.

Timmons, Stuart

1990. The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement. Boston: Alyson Publications.

White, C. Todd

2009. Pre-Gay L.A.: A Social History of the Movement for Homosexual Rights. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Williams, Walter L. and Yolanda Retter

2003. Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States: A Documentary History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.