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"The Gay Metropolis is a landmark saga of struggle and triumph thatwas instantly recognized as the most authoritative and substantial work of its kind. Now, for the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprisings, Charles Kaiser has brought this history into the twenty-first century. In this new edition he covers the three court cases that lead to the revolutionary legalization of gay marriage in America, as well as shifts toward inclusion in mainstream pop culture, with the Oscar winning films Brokeback Mountain and Call me by your name. Filled with astounding anecdotes and searing tales of heartbreak and transformation, it provides a decade-by-decade account of the rise and acceptance of gay life and identity since the 1940s. From the making of West Side Story to the catastrophic era of AIDS, and with a dazzling cast of characters--including Leonard Bernstein, Montgomery Clift, Alfred Hitchcock, John F. Kennedy, and RuPaul--this is a vital telling of American history."--… (more)
User reviews
Different eras emphasize different aspects of the gay experience: in WW 2 we have gays in battle (amazingly well tolerated for the time- so much for gays breaking down military cohesiveness); in different eras it’s the literary set, the theater (the groundbreaking premier of ‘The Boys in the Band’, for instance), Stonewall, the bars and bathhouses, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and the horrifying number of deaths that followed. I enjoyed this approach; it gives the reader a rounded view of gay history. My only complaint is that lesbians barely make an appearance in the book.
Originally written in 1997, Kaiser wrote a new afterword in 2007 with a brief update. I found it fitting that I was reading that update while listening to the news about the NY vote on gay marriage.