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Jim Downs

Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation Hardcover – March 1, 2016

by Jim Downs (Author)

4.6 57 ratings

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From a prominent young historian, the untold story of the rich variety of gay life in America in the 1970s

Despite the tremendous gains of the LGBT movement in recent years, the history of gay life in this country remains poorly understood. According to conventional wisdom, gay liberation started with the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village in 1969. The 1970s represented a moment of triumph -- both political and sexual -- before the AIDS crisis in the subsequent decade, which, in the view of many, exposed the problems inherent in the so-called "gay lifestyle".

In Stand by Me, the acclaimed historian Jim Downs rewrites the history of gay life in the 1970s, arguing that the decade was about much more than sex and marching in the streets. Drawing on a vast trove of untapped records at LGBT community centers in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, Downs tells moving, revelatory stories of gay people who stood together -- as friends, fellow believers, and colleagues -- to create a sense of community among people who felt alienated from mainstream American life.

As Downs shows, gay people found one another in the Metropolitan Community Church, a nationwide gay religious group; in the pages of the Body Politic, a newspaper that encouraged its readers to think of their sexuality as a political identity; at the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore, the hub of gay literary life in New York City; and at theaters putting on "Gay American History," a play that brought to the surface the enduring problem of gay oppression.

These and many other achievements would be largely forgotten after the arrival in the early 1980s of HIV/AIDS, which allowed critics to claim that sex was the defining feature of gay liberation. This reductive narrative set back the cause of gay rights and has shaped the identities of gay people for decades.

An essential act of historical recovery, Stand by Me shines a bright light on a triumphant moment, and will transform how we think about gay life in America from the 1970s into the present day.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

March 1, 2016
Dimensions

6.5 x 1 x 9.63 inches
ISBN-10

0465032702
ISBN-13

978-0465032709
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Downs has an instinct for historically relevant stories and he tells them well.... In the chapter 'Prison Sounds,' Downs offers similarly invigorating detective work, digging up aspects of LGBT activism that have eluded most historians."―Boston Review

"Downs capably blends authority and warmth in this thoughtful reexamination of an era."―Boston Globe

"Intelligent and thought-provoking."―Kirkus Reviews

"The sheer act of Downs' acknowledging that not all gay men subscribed to the popular 'three Big Bs' of the time--'the Bars, Beaches, and Baths'--and found their identity validated and articulated through the communal practices of Christian worship and cultural hubs (like the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop) is a refreshing and invigorating experience. Stand By Me proves a deeply moving read, one that passionately and urgently argues for us to acknowledge some of the forgotten history of gay liberation."―San Francisco Chronicle

"Downs infuses great passion and intent in every paragraph, striving to the raise the level of discourse even as he's tossing outmoded ideas aside left and right. This is history as it should be told, as complex and as personal as possible."―Manhattan Book Review

"Stand by Me includes massacre and tragedy; its opening chapter is an emotional rehashing of the 1973 arson attack--the most lethal targeting of gay people in American history until the June 12 massacre at Orlando's Pulse club--took the lives of 32 men during a religious service.... The passages that grab you most...address the 'usable past,' which Downs defines as the facets of history that provide gay people with 'legitimacy, meaning, and, most of all, a genealogy to their plight.' And his passion is infectious."―Public Books

"Stand By Me is not duplicative of other accounts. It is to our movement an equivalent to Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States."―Lambda Literary

"Stand By Me is a laudable, thoroughly researched corrective to the prevalent idea of gay people in the 1970s as uninvolved, unengaged sex-crazed hedonists."―A & U Magazine

"Downs makes a good case for us to remember that the zeal for liberation in the '70s was deeply and directly informed by feminist politics, and thus was only ever in part, primarily or even strongly, about sexual liberation.... [A] diverting book with considerable virtues."―Gay & Lesbian Review

"This book is informative, sometimes horrifying, interesting and, unlike your old high school history books, it's never dry."―Washington Blade

"A valuable addition to LGBT and social-change collections."―Booklist

"In sparking, often moving, prose, Jim Downs rewrites the history of the gay liberation movement in the 1970s. This is an important contribution not only to the history of that struggle but to our understanding of the afterlife of the upheavals of the 1960s."―Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Fiery Trial

"From the ashes of a horrific fire that engulfed a gay church in New Orleans in 1973, Jim Downs has rescued the history of gay men in the decade after the Stonewall uprising. As this beautiful, and at times haunting, book makes clear, gay men in this period forged intellectually vibrant, spiritually rich, and nourishing communities that not only sustained them through some harrowing and heartwarming times, but that also grew more powerful as the twentieth century became the twenty-first."―Heather Ann Thompson, University of Michigan

"Stand by Me brings the 1970s back to life, not as it is imagined to be, but as it actually was. In compelling prose, Jim Downs has recovered the stories of heroic individuals who risked much to come out, to build community, and to fight for social justice. Some of these episodes are tragic and some inspiring. All of them deserve to be remembered."―John D'Emilio, author of Intimate Matters

About the Author

Jim Downs, is a Mellon New Directions Fellow at Harvard University and an associate professor of history at Connecticut College. The author of the critically acclaimed Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction, he has also written for Time, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times, among other publications. Downs lives in Cambridge, MA.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1st edition (March 1, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465032702
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465032709
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.63 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,186,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,048 in LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies
- #31,155 in World History (Books)
- #43,390 in United States History (Books)

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4.6 57 ratings

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Jim Downs is the Gilder Lehrman-National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Civil War Studies and History at Gettysburg College.

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Wayne Dynes

Overly selective

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 25, 2016

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With its many vicissitudes the history of the gay-rights movement stretches back to the 19th century in Germany. In America the seventies are a meaningful unit, being bracketed by the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, on the one hand, and the beginning of the AIDS crisis, on the other.
While it was not the start of the gay movement - a common misconception - Stonewall marked the time when the movement went into overdrive. This is when many institutions took root, such as the gay bookstores and newspapers, gay legal efforts, and gay churches and synagogues. It is on these developments that Downs selectively focuses.
In his selectivity, he has chosen to feature a few iconic activists, leaving out such major contributors as Arthur Warner in Princeton, Barbara Gittings in Philadelphia, Frank Kameny in Washington, D.C., Bill Kelley in Chicago, and Betty Berzon and Morris Kight in Los Angeles. Moreover, the book is exclusively concerned with North America. In fact the seventies was the era in which the American movement, itself based on European roots, spread its influence massively in Europe and eventually through much of the rest of the world. One finds nothing of these momentous changes here.
Even accepting that limitation, one must flag the unfortunate subtitle: “The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation.” This history has not been forgotten at all, as one can see by consulting the relevant chapters of major books on the American gay movement by Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney; John Loughery; and Lillian Faderman.
Had he made more abundant use of these books, Downs would not have been tempted to set up a straw man in his claim that the seventies is regarded as exclusively about sex. To be sure, the gay reflex of the sexual revolution was important, as seen in the backrooms, bath houses, porno theaters, and other forms of public sex that thrived in that era. But they operated in tandem with the more respectable institutions that Downs seems to regard as the only significant thing happening in the seventies. In other words the man who went to the baths one night, might go to a gay bookstore on the following day. The two sets of clientele were not mutually exclusive.
A common saying is that an author should sweat so that the reader doesn’t have too. Clearly Downs has labored long and hard on this volume, and the result is, for an academic book, refreshingly accessible. You won’t be bored. Yet because of its flawed premises, the work cannot be regarded as an essential contribution.

24 people found this helpful

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JD Doyle

An interesting and engaging book of our history, covering underserved areas.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2019

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Stand By Me - Jim Downs (2016)
I read a Lot of books on LGBGQ history, and you might think the books are covering the same ground over and over. Not this one. I was delighted that it dug deep into some often overlooked areas of our movement. Probably my favorite was that Downs gave the history of Craig Rodwell and his founding of the landmark first gay bookstore, NYC's Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, in 1967. Rodwell would not sell gay porn, so this was the first legitimate offering of other publications dealing with a wide range of topics. It opened the door to respectability, a door we very much needed. Pioneering chronicler of our history Jonathan Ned Katz was a part of this story. A close second to this area was that the book honored the contributions of the gay press, particularly Toronto's The Body Politic, a provider of critical commentary of the news and how it affected us. There were other noteworthy areas and I am very ready for him to come out with a Part II.

One person found this helpful

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Tyler

Perspective Changing, Eye Opening, and Thought Provoking.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book ends as powerfully as it starts. I like to pride myself on knowing a lot about GLBT history, having Henry Hay and Harvey Milk as heroes, and having an activist spirit at heart. This book literally captures so many different things. It begins with an introduction that reads like a mystery, then moves to the New Orleans Massacre which moved me to tears, then discusses: the history of the GLBT movement towards religion, the establishment of print journalism in the GLBT community, the first GLBT bookstore in the United States which is sadly closed, the fight for gay prisoners, and 1970's stereotypes about body image and the movement being "white-washed." It ends with literally the best message I have read in a book in a long time. I have never been more drawn into a non-fiction book in my entire life. It felt at times like I was having an internal dialogue with myself and these people featured in the book. I have never felt so connected to a movement, its' history, and the idea that we will never forget, always keep fighting for equality, and never accept discrimination. I wish I could thank every individual featured in the book personally. Without your fight, your pain, your struggle, and you defiance of the status quo, I would never have been able to live my life. Thank you.

10 people found this helpful

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ECM333

Downs skillfully deconstructs the common narrative of gay liberation and ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

Downs skillfully deconstructs the common narrative of gay liberation and it's relationship to sex over the course of this well-researched and informative book. Although his scope is limited to major US cities, this does not detract from his history; rather, it allows him to delve more deeply into the roots of the gay communities that grew out of sexual liberation. Downs shines a light on untold stories, histories that were doomed to live in dusty archives, and in writing with an intensely personal tone, forces the reader to reconsider traditional stereotypes about gay communities and lifestyles. An important and fascinating book; a reminder that the thread of history as we know it is in and of itself a construct. Stand by Me disrupts that accepted version of the history of gay liberation and allows for deep connection between the reader and the events of the 1970s. A must-read for anyone interested in what happens after the protest movements; lessons here for current agents of change.

6 people found this helpful

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iggybo

untold story about the gay rights movement

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2016

Verified Purchase

this book about the gay liberation movement post-stonewall goes a long way in dispelling some of the myths that have been created in our culture about that time. the author has obviously done his due diligence on the topic and his level of research is impressive. i would have liked to have seen more personal stories--at times the writing seems too clinical and dispassionate--but overall it's worth reading and serves as an important and timely contribution to the story of gay liberation in the u.s.

2 people found this helpful

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