Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution [Hardcover]

Linda Hirshman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 5, 2012

Supreme Court lawyer and political pundit Linda Hirshman details the stunning story of how a resourceful and dedicated minority transformed the notion of American marriage equality and forged a campaign for cultural change that will serve as a model for all future political movements. In the vein of Taylor Branch’s classic Parting of the Waters, Hirshman’s groundbreaking Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution is the powerful story of a massive shift in American culture. Hirshman offers an insider’s view of the crucial struggle that is leading to change, incorporating her unique experiences and insights and drawing upon new interviews—with movement titans such as Frank Kameny and Phyllis Lyon, with next-generation activists such as Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, and with allies including the likes of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand—to create a comprehensive, inspiring history of change in our time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“As popular history, Victory excels. Hirshman is a nimble storyteller with an agile curatorial eye for what matters. . . . Exemplary. . . . I find Victory to be an astute jolt, as remarkable for its emotional punch as for its historical insight.” (Rich Benjamin, New York Times Book Review)

“Hirshman has produced a remarkable history of the gay-rights movement in America by chronicling many of the people and events that shaped it. She has a smart and engaging style, which is serious but not ponderous. . . . with new clarity and simple, fresh insight.” (NewYorker.com)

“Sharp and cogent throughout. . . . Victory is ultimately a deeply moving narrative of a not-quite-finished freedom struggle.” (Boston Globe)

“Given that the gay rights saga is very much in process, the ending of Hirshman’s book is a cliffhanger, but she does a masterful job of making her readers, whether they’re familiar with the material or not, want to know what happens next.” (Los Angeles Times)

“Exhilarating. . . . As an overview of recent American LGBT history, Victory has plenty to recommend it. . . . A good starting point for learning about recent gay history.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

“Victory is one of the most important (and readable) gay-history texts around.” (Philadelphia City Paper)

“An astonishing work that seamlessly weaves together multiple stories into one authoritative volume. Highly recommended for political scientists, civil rights activists, and students of LGBT history.” (Library Journal (starred review))

“Victory tells the fascinating inside story of how gay activists changed America for the better, not just for themselves but for everyone. There’s inspiration here for everyone who wants a fairer, more equal society-- and plenty of hope as well.” (Katha Pollitt, Nation columnist)

“Linda Hirshman has written an important and necessary book that should be read in every school and every home in the country.” (Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire)

“Hirshman . . . offers perceptive comparisons between the gay-rights movement and other, concurrent movements for equality.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“This exuberant history of arguably the final and most difficult civil rights struggle relates, in surprisingly upbeat fashion, the fight ‘to slowly bend the arc of history toward justice’ for gay men and women. . . . Undeniably inspiring.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Before he died, gay rights hero Arthur Evans told Linda Hirshman to tell our story. And she does so brilliantly--with insight, passion and the keen eye of a fierce social scientist. And what a story it is! Arthur Evans would be proud.” (Eric Marcus, author of Making Gay History and What If Someone I Know Is Gay?)

“I picked this book up one night and never got to sleep. Victory is an epic account of our movement’s progress; a beautifully written and fast moving narrative that is poignant, humorous, and inspiring.” (Cleve Jones, Founder of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt)

“Linda Hirshman’s Victory is the chronicle that the brilliant, unremitting gay movement deserves. Deeply informed with human detail, political theory, and legal analysis alike, it moves fluidly out of the closet to the precincts . . . A genuine, sparkling tour de force.” (Todd Gitlin, author of Occupy Nation)

“A compulsively readable mix of philosophy, social history and journalism, Hirshman’s [book] provides an invaluable understanding of the people across the years who have worked so passionately to increase liberty and justice in our union.” (Rebecca Traister, author of Big Girls Don't Cry)

“Hirshman has done a great service in putting the question of morality in this movement on the table. Though important chapters are yet to be written, this book will help the world to see that gay is good-and getting better.” (Slate)

“Victory’s tone is thoughtful and modest, exploring large themes through individuals’ stories. . . . The book gives a moving picture of a history many won’t know.” (American Prospect)

“An inclusive, fascinating history of the gay rights movement that provides fertile grounds for passionate debate.” (Shelf Awareness)

“Her analysis of what makes social movements succeed is always thoughtful and sometimes profound. . . . The result is always entertaining and frequently exhilarating.” (BusinessWeek)

“Hirshman provides an excellent and very readable history that is buttressed by an impressive amount of research and personal interviews. (Edge)

“Linda Hirshman delivers a vivid history of a movement that was invented, out of nothing, circa 1950. . . . One advantage of Hirshman’s book-breezily written, but kinetic in its storytelling-is that it honors the activism of the pre-Stonewall era.” (The New Yorker)

From the Back Cover

A Supreme Court lawyer and political pundit details the enthralling and groundbreaking story of the gay rights movement, revealing how a dedicated and resourceful minority changed America forever.

When the modern struggle for gay rights erupted—most notably at a bar called Stonewall in Greenwich Village—in the summer of 1969, most religious traditions condemned homosexuality; psychiatric experts labeled people who were attracted to others of the same sex "crazy"; and forty-nine states outlawed sex between people of the same gender. Four decades later, in June 2011, New York legalized gay marriage—the most populous state in the country to do so thus far. The armed services stopped enforcing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, ending a law that had long discriminated against gay and lesbian members of the military. Successful social movements are always extraordinary, but these advances were something of a miracle.

Political columnist Linda Hirshman recountsthe long roads that led to these victories, viewing the gay rights movement within the tradition of American freedom as the third great modern social-justice movement, alongside the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement. Drawing on an abundance of published and archival material, and hundreds of in-depth interviews, Hirshman shows, in this astute political analysis, how the fight for gay rights has changed the American landscape for all citizens—blurring rigid gender lines, altering the shared culture, and broadening our definitions of family.

From the Communist cross-dresser Harry Hay in 1948 to New York's visionary senator Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010, the story includes dozens of brilliant, idiosyncratic characters. Written in vivid prose, at once emotional and erudite, Victory is an utterly vibrant work of reportage and eyewitness accounts, revealing how, in a matter of decades, while facing every social adversary—church, state, and medical establishment—a focused group of activists forged a classic campaign for cultural change that will serve as a model for all future political movements.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Harper (June 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061965502
• ISBN-13: 978-0061965500
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Activism
  • #40 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Civil Rights

More About the Author

A retired labor lawyer and professor, Linda Hirshman is the author of Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World; Hard Bargains: The Politics of Sex; and A Woman's Guide to Law School. She received her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and taught Philosophy and Women's Studies at Brandeis University, specializing in the study of social movements. In recent years, she has appeared on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, various NPR shows and the Colbert Report. She also has written for such publications as the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Ms., Glamour, Slate, the Daily Beast, and Salon.com. She lives in New York City.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Should Be required Reading For Every Responsible Citizen June 16, 2012

By DJY51 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I was appalled at my ignorance about the struggles gay people endured throughout the history of our country, and even what went on in the past forty years. Sure I knew sodomy was illegal in some states. But I had basically thought, so what? So is intercourse in any position other than the missionary position in some states. Little did I know that people were actually arrested while engaging in their own, mutually consensual acts.
One of the stories that is discussed in detail is how Ronald Reagan's opposition to the Briggs Initiative, which would have kept gays from working in California's public schools, helped defeat it. Yet Reagan was irresponsible when it came to addressing the AIDS crisis. As was, Mayor Koch. What happens to people when they are in public office that keeps them from exhibiting basic human decency? I actually thought I knew something about the gay struggles in the 80s. My ignorance, despite losing three friends to AIDS, including my best friend, is appalling.
For many years I've argued that the Gay Pride Parade was ridiculous. People should be proud of what they do, not who they are. I'm not proud of being heterosexual. I just am. I'm proud of (some of) my choices. But as I read this book and learned how serious and rampant prejudice was, I understand it more. And feel incredibly embarrassed.
I learned about a US Supreme Court Decision, Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which was so awful I don't feel comfortable mentioning what it said, but I do believe the justices who are still alive who voted for it should be impeached and removed from their positions.
One of the most sickening things you'll come to realize in the course of this book is that there has not been one advance made towards creating equal rights for members of the LBGTQ community based on principal. All of them were based on changing public opinion.
This book was very painful and embarrassing for me to read. Painful because my heart went out to those who have been abused by the same system that makes my life so easy, and embarrassing because I haven't done enough to help right so many injustices that impact my family (I have a trans son) and friends.

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A thrilling tale, well-told April 2, 2012

By Richard Nelson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

If you follow the news, you know how Victory ends. The U.S. Senate passes DADT repeal in the 2010 lame-duck session. New York's Senate passes marriage equality on the last day of its 2011 session. In 2012, support for marriage equality crosses the 50% barrier in opinion polling. The book's title may be premature, but the bend in the arc of history seems clear.

What you may not know, what Linda Hirshman makes vivid by weaving together the personal tales of various gay men and lesbians from the past 100 years, is the distance the gay rights movement had to travel to arrive, today, at the doorstep of legal equality. Hirshman starts from the beginning, with young men and women moving to cities in the early 1900s and finding, for the first time, clusters of other people just like them. Over the ensuing decades, she chronicles their joy of discovery, their fear of being discovered, their self-organization to respond to threats to their lives and livelihoods, and, eventually, their upending of what it meant to be a good American, reframing morality and the standards of citizenship so they could embrace gays and lesbians. The reader sees the progress, made in fits and starts and in many different places, come together in a way that the movement's alphabet soup of organizations may obscure -- HRC, SLDN, GLAAD, Lambda Legal and the rest are all natural outgrowths of the very first living-room meetings when gays and lesbians began to discuss the rights they were surely entitled to and formulate the legal and moral theories that would underpin their eventual success in claiming those rights. Hirshman shows how the work of all of these groups, of activists across the country, undergirds the progress the community as a whole has made.

While the movement's momentum occasionally slows, the pace of the book never does; Hirshman has a writing style that draws the reader in. A well-sourced, well-crafted work of history AND a page-turner, Victory, like the movement it describes, is a triumph.

28 of 37 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars An excellent subject, but the treatment is flawed June 1, 2012

By dephal VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

The good parts of this book first: It tells an important story in a fresh way. It's well-researched. I found the detailed chronology near the end especially useful.

Unfortunately, the good parts were outweighed by the bad parts. The most minor of these is that the prose needed better editing. I'm not talking about typos here, but rather sentences that were strained or even ungrammatical, such as this one: "Whether inducted into the armed services and serving in combat, as Robert Fleischer did, or serving soldiers and sailors in quite a different context as Donald Vining happily did, or trying, unsuccessfully, to keep a foot in each camp, like Marty Klausner, World War II unquestionably changed the lives and outlooks of many gay and lesbian people." Some sentences are just plain awkward: "Even with every scientific advance, babies are still the product of heterosexual something, usually the heterosexual, reproductive family."

There was also some petty judgmentalism. For example, in the section in which the author (rightfully) attacks psychiatry's willingness to diagnose homosexuality as a mental disorder, she refers to the "science" of psychiatry, with the science in quotation marks. Snarkily condemning an entire field due to one major error (which has since been rectified) smacks of sloppiness.

I didn't much care for the vignette that opened the book. The author tells of a real estate agent who, upon winning an award in 2007, performed "YMCA" in drag, while other agents cheered and clapped. That incident was meant to illustrate the acceptance that gay people have won. And I suppose maybe it does, but I think there are better--and less stereotyped--examples, such as openly gay politicans being elected and reelected, or same sex couples being open about who they are, even if one or both of them is in the military.

But the worst problem was that I found so many statements to disagree with. Some were small ones, like referring to gay people as a "tiny minority". Not so tiny, according to most researchers. In another spot, she claims that after the sexual revolution, homosexuality remained the only aspect of sexuality subject to criminal regulation. Tell that to all the people currently locked up (indefinitely) as sexual predators, or the people (sometimes minors themselves) prosecuted for having sex with minors, or to women who have found their access to birth control and abortion constricted.

But some statements were more central to the author's thesis, such as her assertion that the gay rights movement has achieved more traction than the racial civil rights movement. Really? While racial discrimination is hardly extinct, it--unlike discrimination based on sexual orientation--is illegal in every state. And race-based bigotry is less socially acceptable today than sexual orientation-based bigotry.

The author also claims that women and racial minorities were able to achieve much progress by "maximizing their similarity to dominant political and social hierarchies." However, she goes on, "people involved in the gay revolution could not replicate the majority behavior. Their very political identity was the behavior that distinguished them from the majority, including, but not limited to, their sex lives." This argument mystfies me. Women can't be men, and blacks can't be white, any more than gays can be straight. But all minorities can emphasize their similarity to straight, white men. In fact, I think this is a predominant message of the right to marriage movement--gays and lesbians sending the message that their desires to have a family are just like everyone else's.

My inability to read the book without questioning a great many of the author's assertions detracted from the book's value considerably. And that's too bad, because the book did hold great promise.