There have been studies of gay images and themes in motion pictures before, and there have been books, often with a superficial gossipy tone, claiming that this or that performer in movies was gay. But William Mann's Behind the Screen is the first comprehensive history of gays and lesbians in the American film industry. Focusing as much on supporting roles, such as wardrobe or set designer, as on the more well-known careers of actors and directors, Mann carefully presents a mass of detail showing that gay men and women had an important influence on the creation and evolution of Hollywood style.

The early years saw an atmosphere of social freedom for gays in the industry. As long as the movies made money, gay filmmakers and performers could live the way they wanted, while the press and studio executives looked the other way. But the advent of the Production Code in 1932, following a series of attacks on Hollywood "immorality" by religious conservatives and politicians, forced industry gays to be more cautious. Still, directors like Dorothy Arzner, George Cukor, and Mitchell Leisen managed to get their unique sensibilities past the censors and into the so-called "women's pictures," defining style and romance for a generation. The sexuality of stars such as Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant was carefully concealed from the public, but Mann breaks through the denials, which in many cases persisted for a lifetime, with his even-handed and thoroughly convincing documentation.

In the less public domains of art direction, costume design, and makeup, the book shows that Hollywood provided great opportunities for gays, with Adrian and Howard Greer being only the most prominent examples. The cost of acceptance was the double standard: while gay life flourished, no one talked about it. With the end of War World II came another backlash - anticommunist witch hunts made life more difficult for gay men and women as well. Mann's section on the Fifties is a fascinating look at how gays in the industry survived in a reactionary climate.

Behind the Screen is filled with interesting private glimpses of film artists in the heyday of the studio system - from the famous (Vincente Minnelli, James Whale, Greta Garbo, Clifton Webb, Ross Hunter) to the relatively unknown (early western star J. Warren Kerrigan, Lilyan Tashman, William Haines). Mann depicts the social and professional worlds of gay Hollywood, explaining how gays supported each other in the industry, and how they were generally accepted by straight colleagues and the studio establishment.

Among the book's insights is how important gay pride and visibility is. For although gays and lesbians had an immense influence on Hollywood movies, and thereby on American styles and mores, the public silence about gay filmmakers and performers has resulted in misapprehension even today. One proof of that is my surprise at finding out just how pervasive gay influence in classic film really was. Mann's book is a groundbreaking corrective to years of ignorance and denial, and an affirmation of the crucial role of gay talent and vision in the development of our most popular art form. (Chris Dashiell)

In a warm, personal style, Moats introduces us to all the principals, carefully guiding the reader through each phase of the political process. In order to gain support, gay rights advocates compromised by settling for civil union rather than marriage, but the opposition was still fierce. If there’s one thing the book proves, it’s that courage is needed in order to stand up to the threats and distortions of anti-gay forces. Lies, abuse, and death threats became a reality not only for Lippert and other gay activists, but for their straight allies as well. When the time came for a crucial vote, Lippert made the speech of his life to help turn the tide.

It’s a moving and dramatic story, and also an excellent look at the day-to-day hard work that it takes in order to claim our rights, not just symbolically through protest, but on the practical level of political action and legislation. Civil Wars doesn’t minimize the difficulties and personal risks involved in standing up for gay rights, or the rewards. In the end, this story of one state’s journey towards justice is an inspiration for us all. (Chris Dashiell)

Back in 1993 I was amazed by some of my straight-but-not-narrow friends. They assumed that my then-partner and I were legally married. “Why do you need Power of attorney?” they asked, “We were at your wedding.”

Fast forward a decade later and you’ll find that the Friends of the Friends of Dorothy are better versed on gay and lesbian legal issues, but it’s usually only veterans of law school that know anything about Hardwick v. Bowers or Romer v. Evans. (Hardwick is the 1986 Georgia sodomy ruling that has been used by lower court judges as precedent that gays do not have sexual privacy rights. Romer is the 1996 gay rights victory that struck down Colorado’s anti-gay ballot initiative.)

To remedy this ignorance, Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price have produced Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians V. the Supreme Court, a comprehensive, fascinating, and readable history of the American gay and lesbian dance with the law. Murdoch, a National Journal editor, and Price, a syndicated columnist with the Detroit News, researched Court files, interviewed former court clerks and lawyers, and many of the original plaintiffs and defendants covering a period from the 1950’s to the present.

There are interesting portrayals of the Justices. Lewis Powell was the swing vote on Hardwick, who claimed to have never met a homosexual. It was a claim that could have been disputed by the string of gay clerks who worked for Powell. Justice Frank Murphy served the Court from 1940-1949 and looks to have been, most probably, gay.

The best part of the book is the chance to learn about the brave plaintiffs. Frank Kameny was an astronomer who became an activist after losing his federal job in the ‘50s. Tom Waddell, founder of the Gay Games went to court over the use of “Olympics”.

So, is every American is entitled to equal rights under the law?

Keep in mind that the 1996 ruling in Romer v. Evans (striking down the Colorado anti-gay ballot initiative) is the first and only Court ruling to address that discrimination based on sexual orientation violates the Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection of the law.” May the Court start reflecting our society sooner, not later. (Beth Petrucci)

Dress Codes has a promising subtitle, but if you are looking for a discourse on girlhood as the rehearsal/prep for the construction of “American Woman,” keep looking. Noelle Howey’s book is first and foremost a memoir of her experience growing up as the suburban middle-class kid of a cross-dressing dad and a tomboy mom. Her father, Dick, was “sullen, sporadically hostile, frequently vacant.” He morphed into the hyper-masculine bowler and sports car-driving “Duke” before eventually leaving his wife, Dinah, and daughter to transition into living as a woman.

It’s a new perspective on the dysfunctional family biography. At 14, Noelle’s burdened with “the family secret: Dad likes to wear women’s clothes,” and by her college years has achieved semi-celebrity on her liberal campus by perpetually outing herself as the girl with a transgender parent. In attempting to tell of “three Girlhoods,” the author re-constructs conversations and scenes from her parents’ high school courting, and these portions make up the weakest part of the book.

Howey comes from the Marion Winick school of TMI (or, Too Much Information) writing. Getting painful revelations onto paper takes guts, but she never achieves perspective, the distance needed to tell a story with more laughs and less wincing.Her story could have benefited from a lighter voice or a stronger editor. (Beth Petrucci)

Gays and lesbians have played a crucial role in military campaigns, from the Peloponnesian War through the Gulf War, from the campaigns of Achilles to Lawrence of Arabia. This anthology on the often invisible gay and lesbian warriors from antiquity to the present brings to light much that has been obscured by the recent "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the current military service. Same-sex romances were a common and condoned part of military culture in ancient Greece and Rome, in Crusader campaigns and pirate adventures. The Amazons of legend weren't fictional but had a rich culture, as documented by Plato and Seneca. Court-martial proceedings of 17th century England uncover women warriors who passed as men in order to serve. The sexual culture of the samurai as it relates to war-making and of army officers who maintained long-term romantic friendships also highlight this rich aspect of military history. (Jimmie Bevill)

Rosco’s biography is remarkable in that it captures the feel of Wescott’s prose while describing his life. The style of this thoughtful, intimate portrait mirrors Wescott’s own elegant precision as a writer. And although Rosco discusses the major works with great insight, the book is even better at portraying the pre-Stonewall gay artistic community of which Wescott, who was unusually open about his sexuality for those times, played a major role. He seems to have known almost everyone – Marianne Moore, W.H. Auden, E.M. Forster, and Somerset Maugham, among others, and the book provides a fascinating glimpse into this vibrant world of poets and artists. The book also covers Wescott’s enthusiastic involvement with Alfred Kinsey’s studies on sexuality in the 1950s. Wescott emerges as a leading figure in American intellectual life, and an important early example of a gay artist who chose candor over concealment. (Chris Dashiell)

How Sex Changed is the recipient of the 2003 Stonewall Award for non-fiction. The oldest GLBT book awards in the U.S, the Stonewall Awards are given by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table of the American Library Association. (Karyn Prechtel)

Born in 1968 in San Francisco, Cho paints a hilarious yet affectionate portrait of her Korean mother, with unforgettable stories such as her mother’s investigating the porn magazines in their bookstore on the infamous Polk Street gay drag. Cho reveals the horror of church-camp summers and feeling invisible or downright disliked as a child, and the kinship and solace found from the drag queens who worked in her father’s store. "Drag queens are strong because they have so much to fight against," writes Cho, "homophobia, sexism, pink eye."

To support herself at the beginning of her comedy career, Cho worked at FAO Schwarz, sometimes moonlighting in phone sex. Occasionally the jobs would overlap, and she would find herself doing phone sex dressed as Raggedy Ann.

This book is based on her hilarious one-woman off-Broadway show/movie, but is more painful in the print version. It doesn’t have all the content of the stage show (the bisexual stories are missing!), and it does have more of a therapy feel to it (“I hated myself, but now I’ve found my inner goddess, and you can too.”) But there is new material too, and the book acts as a big loving Band-aid for all of us who have ever been told we are not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough or just not enough, period.

Cho is presently on tour with her new show, The Notorious C. H. O. She already played Phoenix in November, but for additional tour dates check out her website, http://www.margaretcho.com.
(Terry Nordbrock)

The chorus of voices includes the college student who first discovered Shepard's beaten body, the police, doctors at the hospital, Matthew's friends, his father, and his teachers, his convicted killers and their friends, Laramie's religious leaders and even the nomadic and vile Fred Phelps.

This is a mesmerizing work that evokes raw emotion. It is compelling to watch the citizens wrestle to make sense of a horrific murder in their community, while struggling with the changes in their own sense of self, whether those changes are a new-found gay activism or having to view themselves through the mirror of the national media. (Beth Petrucci)