Reddit reviews Making Gay History: The Half Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights

Books:

Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present

Making Gay History

Documentaries:

The Times of Harvey Milk

The Celluloid Closet

Unfortunately I don't have any better trans* and genderqueer inclusive titles off the top of my head, but I'll keep an eye out.

Making Gay History was a good read, and covers the 50-70's. Interviews of people from the time, follows their stories through the book. Here's an amazon link.

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Gay-History-Century-Lesbian/dp/0060933917

Neglected to do otherwise? Did you miss the links I posted that explained the gay pride/gay rights movement, with its parades, marches and demonstrations, was only "men in dresses wearing glitter" for at least 2 decades?


You might want to consider educating yourself both about the debt you owe to those you deride, and the realities of transgender people in America today. You sound pretty confident in how little you actually seem to know. That may not be real helpful to you in the long run, or to anyone else. Just because you're okay being denigrated doesn't mean it's okay, or okay for anyone else. It may "not bother you too much," but slurs and hate actually drive many people, and teens, especially, to self harm, if not suicide.

I don't usually call people out on using the term "tranny" who aren't gay or close with a gay person, simply because there are other things that I think are more important for them to understand. But you're describing yourself as gay. I believe you have a responsibility to yourself and to the community to champion those who the larger world would denigrate, if not erase. Educate yourself. The gay community and its supporters have enough problems without people on the inside attacking their own. It cracks me up to think where someone like you would be if Stonewall and all those embarrassing-to-you parades and marches and demonstrations had never happened. I'll give you a clue: right where you would have been before. In the dark, cold closet.

On why "tranny" is a hurtful term-

"The term itself was first popularized within the porn industry. And while I'll be the last one to denigrate sexuality and pornography, the fact is that "tranny porn" is about as representative of trans people's sexuality as "girl-on-girl porn" is representative of lesbian sexuality. The usual context that it has been used in porn is to highlight how trans women are not really women, while also painting us as more exotic and sexually available."

http://www.bilerico.com/2008/09/is_tranny_offensive.php


Off the GLAAD.org website:

These words should not be used: 'transvestite,' 'she-male,' 'he-she,' 'it,' 'trannie,' 'tranny,' and 'shim.' These words are dehumanizing, and using them to refer to any person is similar to using an anti-gay epithet.

http://www.glaad.org/transgender

And a general timeline:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0761909.html

Books:

This one is especially good:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/books/review/victory-by-linda-hirshman.html

and

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Gay-History-Century-Lesbian/dp/0060933917/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1

I second all of the above heavily.

More movies:
Out List
Outrage

Also a few books I loved:

Gay L.A.
Gay Revolution
Making Gay History