Customer Reviews

We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics

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Interest in GLBT politics and a consequent recognition that I (like most Americans) had very little of the background information needed to make informed decisions about today's issues ultimately prompted me to purchase this book.

Covering 18th Century Europe to 20th Century America, it is a powerful but accessible primary resource for anybody in search of historical context to contemporary issues.

Because the editors took care with the project, it is an excellent resource for experienced activists, academics, and newcomers who are simply seeking information about an area which certainly gets talked about on the nightly news---without then necessarily providing the aforementioned context. Unlike a lot of similar works, this book's heft is not waste, actually providing readers with immediately useful information.

Primarily focusing on the United States, the book also examines comparative GLBT politics in Africa (p. 761, p. 823). Like other Americans, progressive activists can also subconsciously and inadvertently evolve an "America first" perspective which fails to consider how sexuality and civil rights related to sexuality are experienced in other cultures; unless it is on our terms, it is not validated. This is an especially relevant pointer when the countries being talked about are not European.

Furthermore, the authors consciously made sure the voices and experiences of women, non-white and/or young people were equally included throughout the work. Adding critical depth to the work, it proves the movement has never only been about affluent white men and my generation itself is playing an equally important role along with Stonewall veterans and baby boomers.

Really, the works only flaw is that it ends in 1994. Considering everything which has happened since this date, I hope a second and expanded edition of this momentous work is planned for publication.

While the editors are operating from a mindset formed, I suspect, in the late 1970s and 1980s, they have included a good deal of useful historical material, some of it translated from French and German for the first time. Apparently, the gathering of material began about 20 years ago, so that there is no coverage of the contribution of Queer Theory. Also, some items are abridged, without proper notification--a serious flaw in what purports to be an objective presentation of source documents. I noticed serious omissions, for example, in the English renderings of the three pamphlets from the time of the French Revolution.