Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights [Hardcover]

John D'Emilio (Editor), William B. Turner (Editor), Urvashi Vaid (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312243758 | ISBN-13: 978-0312243753 | Publication Date: October 19, 2000 | Edition: 1st

Creating Change tells the story behind some of the most bitterly contested and controversial public events and public policy battles in the past generation and possibly in American history. In the thirty years since the Stonewall Inn riots marked the beginning of the modern gay and lesbian movement, there has been a dramatic change in the texture of gay and lesbian life and in its relationship to American society. Despite an apparently deepening conservative hold upon national and state politics, this shift has been as extensive - over a comparable period of time - as that witnessed in race and gender relations.

Creating Change traces the work and gauges the impact of the gay and lesbian movement since Stonewall. It explores a critically significant, though often ignored, area in which change has occurred - the world of public policy making, especially at the level of the federal government - and scrutinizes the who, how, why, and what of it. A work of scholarship and a work of passion, it recounts how a specific constituency - gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans - were able to make tremendous progress despite seemingly insurmountable barriers. Creating Change is the story of the way in which the American political and cultural landscape became what it is today and how social change is brought about.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Like those '40s dance marathons, where the winners were the couple that stayed on their feet the longest, public policy change is sometimes just a matter of endurance. Over the past 30 years, despite a steady shift to the right in federal and state politics, lesbians and gays have made tremendous social and political advances, thanks to the unremitting efforts of activists and sympathetic legislators and policy makers. This inspiring and highly readable anthology, which includes Barney Frank on immigration law, Rich Tafel on gay Republicans, Marj Plumb on lesbian health in the Clinton years, and David L. Chambers on marriage and domestic partnership, describes the incremental but essential changes in American public policy on gay rights since 1970. Creating Change reminds us of the big picture: that gay issues now have a national stage, and that queer lives are braver and hipper than anyone else's. This book should be in every gay library, but especially on the shelves of younger readers, who may not be familiar with the pre-ACT-UP world. --Jack Connolly

From Library Journal

This collection of essays chronicles the history, successes, and failures of the gay agenda, from the passionate immediacy of public protest marches to the plodding maneuverings of political and public policy initiatives. The editorsDD'Emilio (history, Univ. of North Carolina), William B. Turner (history, Middle Tennessee Univ.), and Urvashi Vaid (director of the Policy Institute)Ddivide the essays into three broad categories: gays and presidential politics and governmental institutions, the gay legislative agenda, and the building of a politically viable advocacy movement. Congressman Barney Frank outlines one of the few legislative successes, the removal of anti-gay language from Federal Immigration Laws. Longtime activist Frank Kameny recalls the decades-long fight to protect gay federal government employees from arbitrary harassment and dismissal. Other topics include gay rights and the Supreme Court, gays in the military, marriage and domestic partnership, and federal AIDS policy. Viewed in its entirety, this work successfully illustrates the incremental nature of change inherent in our political system, especially when viewed against the swifter social acceptance within mainstream media culture. Recommended for academic and larger public collections.DJeff Ingram Newport P.L., OR
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312243758
• ISBN-13: 978-0312243753
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,231,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring words for trying times, September 29, 2000

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights (Hardcover)

As a progressive activist, I immensley enjoyed this anthology of movers and shakers in the GLBT movement. Introspective, energetic and visionary, they remind both allies and GLBT people although much has been accomplished, there is no shortage of public policy issues to focus their work on. AIDS, securuty clearances, lesbian feminism and dual identity conflicts of GLBT people of color are issues that will not go away until we deal with them substantively.

While I was famillar with some names... I was introduced to several unsuing heroes and role models. My only regret is that the book tended to gloss over instaces where the movement was not doing as well as it could have been. I believe this would have made some of the anthology more coherent. There are gaps which take away from the individual policy papers.

Even if I understood the National Gay Task Force eventually bevame the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to disadvow sexism, other readers might not be aware of the reason for the name change. More information on the Romer vs. Evans decision (which invalidated Colorado's virulently homophobic Amendment Two), a real victory at a time when the Supreme Court has no shortage of conservatives. The authors simply assume that people know the important bits and pieces that give the riveting stories meaning and importance. Given their backgrounds, this tendency is both troubling and unusual, little is accomplished by preaching to the choir

Still, the format of this book means it can also be used as a college textbook on GLBT issues and theory. Thus it is important to consider the book's above mentioned flaws as a fair description rather than a deliberate pan. Flaws and all, this book is recomended for anybody who wants to know what the "newest" civil rights movement has and is doing to improve American society.