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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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