Creating a Place For Ourselves

Brett Beemyn teaches at Western Illinois University

• Introduction, Brett Beemyn; Chapter 1 1. The Policed, George Chauncey; Chapter 2 “I Could Hardly Wait to Get Back to that Bar”, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Madeline D. Davis; Chapter 3 “Homos Invade S.F.!”, Nan Alamilla Boyd; Chapter 4 The Kids of Fairytown, David K. Johnson; Chapter 5 Before Paris Burned, Allen Drexel; Chapter 6 The “Fun Gay Ladies”, Esther Newton; Chapter 7 The Changing Face of Lesbian Bars in Detroit 1938–1965, Roey Thorpe; Chapter 8 A Queer Capital, Brett Beemyn; Chapter 9 Place and Movement in Gay American History, John Howard; Chapter 10 Cars and Bars, Tim Retzloff; Chapter 11 “Birthplace of the Nation”, Marc Stein; Chapter 12 Afterword, Joan Nestle; contrib Notes on Contributors; Index;

"...essays are fascinatingly researched and engagingly written; the depth of detail here is simply splendid...this collection of essays illuminates how the complicated matrix of gender, race, class (and to some extent mobility, both social and physical) has come into play in the formation of gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities." -- The Lavender Salon Reader"This rich and varied collection will allow teachers of social history and of the twentieth-century United States to incorporate material on sexual identity more easily into their courses." -- John D'Emilio, The Journal ofAmerican History"The essays in Creating a Place for Ourselves provide important and inspirational building blocks in the ever-expanding field of lesbian, gay, and bisexual community studies." -- Lesbian Review of Books