World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture

SYNOPSIS

Something happened in the 1990s, something dramatic and irreversible. A group of people long considered a moral menace and an issue previously deemed unmentionable in public discourse were transformed into a matter of human rights, discussed in every institution of American society. Marriage, the military, parenting, media and the arts, hate violence, electoral politics, public school curricula, human genetics, religion: Name the issue, and the the role of gays and lesbians was a subject of debate. During the 1990s, the world seemed finally to turn and take notice of the gay people in its midst. In The World Turned, distinguished historian and leading gay-rights activist John D'Emilio shows how gay issues moved from the margins to the center of national consciousness during the critical decade of the 1990s.

In this collection of essays, D'Emilio brings his historian's eye to bear on these profound changes in American society, culture, and politics. He explores the career of Bayard Rustin, a civil rights leader and pacifist who was openly gay a generation before almost everyone else; the legacy of radical gay and lesbian liberation; the influence of AIDS activist and writer Larry Kramer; the scapegoating of gays and lesbians by the Christian Right; the gay-gene controversy and the debate over whether people are "born gay"; and the explosion of attention focused on queer families. He illuminates the historical roots of contemporary debates over identity politics and explains why the gay community has become, over the last decade, such a visible part of American life.

About the Author

John D'Emilio is Professor of History and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 and Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America (with Estelle B. Freedman). He was the first director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Public Policy Institute.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Leading gay activist D'Emilio is one of the great pioneers of gay history. . . . The 16 pieces collected here . . . blend together into a vivid portrait of gay thought in the past 15 years. . . . All academic libraries will want this title, and many public libraries need to consider it as well because the essays are not only inherently interesting but also clearly and accessibly written.

Lambda Book Report

John D'Emilio's writing should be required for every gay, lesbian, bi or trans person. . . . The World Turned is a profound work that provides historical context for a decade that was truly transforming.—Scott Blaine Swenson,

New City Chicago

Prowling through the dense, exotic terrain of American pop culture, John D'Emilio returns with a detailed map that charts the migration of gays to the center of our national consciousness during the last decade. The scapegoating of gays by the Christian Right, the controversy simmering around the gay-gene theory, and the influence of the great AIDS activist Larry Kramer, are just a few of the topics surveyed in this collection of essays, all of which read like savvy coffeehouse banter rather than jargon-cluttered academics. . . . D'Emilio shows us that the world has indeed 'turned,' that instead of looking the other way, it faces us head-on, acknowledging our presence in ways it never has before.—Tony Peregrin,

Gay and Lesbian Review/Worldwide

The World Turned takes the supposed tension between activism and academia and kicks it to the curb. . . . D'Emilio makes a stirring case for moving beyond fragmented identity politics based on ethnicity or sexual orientation, and for an approach that 'turns outward. . . .' D'Emilio sees the 1990s as a decade of enormous social transformation in the political power of lesbians and gay men, a time when indeed 'the world turned.' Others have made this claim, but D'Emilio has enough historical perspective to make the case effectively.—Christopher Capozzola,

Publishers Weekly

A rabble-rousing college student in the 1960s, a gay liberation activist from the 1970s on, and a former director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Public Policy Institute in the 1990s, University of Illinois history professor John D'Emilio witnessed first-hand the flowering of gay rights and gay acceptance in American culture, as well as the political backlash. He records these in The World Turned: Essays on Gay History, Politics, and Culture. The previously published personal essays, speeches, reviews and biographical sketches cover such subjects as the career of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, the evolution of D'Emilio's sex life, the search for the "gay gene" and Pat Buchanan's homophobic star turn during the 1992 Republican National Convention. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. Read all 6 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

John D'Emilio is the best sort of troublemaker, one who provokes us to see the world with fresh eyes. In this age of arcane academic jargon, D'Emilio writes with clarity and grace. As a historian who dares to walk where others fear to tread, D'Emilio brings an acute sense of time and changing social context to his accounts of sexuality, gender, race, class, politics, the economy, and their links. His careful empirical research provides solid ground for his considered interpretations. These essays are smart, sane, thoughtful, and a joy to read.  — Jonathan Ned Katz, Author of Love Stories: Sex between Men before Homosexuality

Urvashi Vaid