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thebibliocat's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia, Racism, and Homophobia
astronomist's review against another edition
3.0
Martin Duberman has some very strong opinions (spoiler: he believes the gay rights movement has failed). He has few kind words for modern LGBT organizations. He makes his points aggressively and you may very well disagree with his overarching argument. You may be certain he won't convince. He may not convince you. This book is still well worth reading.
The crux of Duberman's argument is that LGBT rights groups were far more radical in their goals in the days of yore than they have become. The focus on marriage equality, Duberman argues, has come at the expense of more radical ideas and the movement has become far more narrow in terms of the rights LGBT people seek to gain.
This book opened my eyes to queer history and to the flaws in out current advocacy system. Even if you find Duberman hard-line in his stance, this book exposes you/me/the reader to unconventional takes on the LGBT rights movement that will ultimately broaden your understanding of it.
(Note: While the title and the scope of the book focus primarily on the gay movement I have opted to refer to "the movement" as LGBT as a nod to the fact that not only gay people exist under this umbrella)
The crux of Duberman's argument is that LGBT rights groups were far more radical in their goals in the days of yore than they have become. The focus on marriage equality, Duberman argues, has come at the expense of more radical ideas and the movement has become far more narrow in terms of the rights LGBT people seek to gain.
This book opened my eyes to queer history and to the flaws in out current advocacy system. Even if you find Duberman hard-line in his stance, this book exposes you/me/the reader to unconventional takes on the LGBT rights movement that will ultimately broaden your understanding of it.
(Note: While the title and the scope of the book focus primarily on the gay movement I have opted to refer to "the movement" as LGBT as a nod to the fact that not only gay people exist under this umbrella)
trillium9's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent book. I will review in more detail in a few days.
pioocampo's review against another edition
3.0
Extremely well-written review of related literature regarding the history of the gay movement with the intersectional views of the Gay Liberation Front from the 70s at its heart. The book had compiled various thesis from multiple perspectives to argue how, for example, HRC’s single-politics remains ineffective while suggesting for us queer folks to join forces with various eco-socio-political liberation groups (not just equality through assimilation.)
Remarkable points, though I hope this could prescribe tangible solutions or simple things one could do. Also, as a reader from the Philippines, I am hoping to widen my horizons by reading more local queer histories—especially so around the Southeast Asia region.
Please comment on recommendations.
Remarkable points, though I hope this could prescribe tangible solutions or simple things one could do. Also, as a reader from the Philippines, I am hoping to widen my horizons by reading more local queer histories—especially so around the Southeast Asia region.
Please comment on recommendations.
caitlin94's review against another edition
4.0
While I didnt agree with everything in this book, I thought it was an excellent examination of the goals and future of the queer liberation movement.
mjbellecourt's review against another edition
4.0
There's a lot to tease out of this book, but I took two major points from it. Duberman argues that the gay movement has largely failed because the national organizations chose to pursue heternormative goals such as legalizing same-sex marriage and freeing LGBTQ people to join the armed forces. That is, the mainstream gay movement prioritized civil rights while neglecting economic rights. As such, today, only wealthy, middle-class members of the LGBTQ community have actually benefited from the gay movement, and most of these are white. Minority members of the community, and nearly the entire transgender contingent, have been left to squander by the conservative Human Rights Campaign.
This occurred because the early gay movement abandoned its leftist origins in organizations like the Gay Liberation Front. What remained of the gay Left could not integrate with our putative allies in the straight Left—and the blame for this can be laid on both sides. Regardless of this history, though, a change in the living conditions of members of our community is only likely ton occur if the gay Left becomes resurgent, and crosses the hundreds of hurdles between us and a straight Left that is, to a startling degree, still drowning in homophobic tendencies.
Join your labor union.
This occurred because the early gay movement abandoned its leftist origins in organizations like the Gay Liberation Front. What remained of the gay Left could not integrate with our putative allies in the straight Left—and the blame for this can be laid on both sides. Regardless of this history, though, a change in the living conditions of members of our community is only likely ton occur if the gay Left becomes resurgent, and crosses the hundreds of hurdles between us and a straight Left that is, to a startling degree, still drowning in homophobic tendencies.
Join your labor union.
ethanoille's review against another edition
3.0
The book's heart is in the right place, but it is scattershot, lacks focus, and is repetitive. Could be half as long (or even article length, tbh) and make its point more effectively.
gerhard's review
5.0
I must confess to not having heard about, or read anything by, Martin Duberman, who has been billed as ‘the godfather of gay studies’ in an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Elsewhere I read that Duberman, now approaching his 90s, has been awarded the Bancroft Award, “one of the highest honours of the historical profession, and numerous other prizes for his historical and creative work.” The New Yorker calls him ‘a national treasure’.
I wonder to what extent Duberman has been overshadowed by Larry Kramer, for example? Well, better late than never, I suppose. I had no idea what to expect when I started reading Has The Gay Movement Failed? Well, I couldn’t put it down, ended up highlighting huge swathes of text, peering through the copious notes to ferret out the seemingly endless number of reference works Duberman alludes to, and quoting bits-and-pieces to my friends, who must have wondered alarmingly if I myself had transformed into some kind of gay-rights activist overnight.
So the tentpole argument goes like this: modern gay society is like an onion, stratified, or with many layers. On top you have the white middle-class mainstream gays, followed by African American gays, Hispanic gays, blue-collar workers, and then right at the bottom you get trans people and other transgressive deviants who not only suffer the greatest oppression and discrimination currently, but also pose the biggest threat to the white middle-class mainstream agenda. Which is assimilation, not transformation.
This can be seen in the campaign for gay marriage, which Duberman argues not only seeks to co-opt the gay community into propping up a faltering heteronormative institution, but which also strives to neutralise or erase our fundamental difference. We have no problem if you’re gay, straight society is saying, as long as you don’t act queer.
However, the African Americans, Hispanics, blue-collar workers, trans people and others actually don’t give two fucks about the right to marry or join the armed forces. The overriding issues in their daily lives are depressingly familiar: Unemployment, poverty, access to medical care, proper education for their children, etc. What has happened, Duberman points out, is that the white middle-class mainstream gay movement is more interested in media-friendly ‘causes’ rather than social justice, which is grubby in-the-trenches kind of activism that the white gay middle class has essentially abandoned.
It never used to be this way, with the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) concerned about equality across the board, including broader societal issues such as racism and sexism. Gay marriage is essentially a conservative, non-threatening olive branch that straight society is prepared to offer the gay community.
But it ignores the many underlying problems faced by the minority strata in the gay community (which is not nearly as homogenised as Will & Grace would have us believe.) The New Yorker succinctly summarises Duberman’s main tenet: “The axiom that homosexuality is immutable has shut the door on a conversation about sexual fluidity, variation, and possibility.”
Duberman’s answer to this problem is the following:
Ideally, we would need the straight left (including feminism) and the gay left to combine forces. We would need straight male lefties to understand that the destruction of economic inequality—itself a goal nearly as inconceivable as it is desirable—will not alone make gladsome every hearth and home, that to complete the trinity and find congenial work and caring connection, a settled sense of safety and satisfaction, we must first endure what can be no less than a searing confrontation with the spectral myths of American benevolence.
Given how Duberman excoriates modern gay politics, I am surprised at the question mark in the title. Maybe the publisher thought no one would buy the book if it was a declarative statement instead. Or maybe the gay white middle class would be too upset at this seeming attack on their dominant position of privilege and political intent.
But I think the question mark points to a genuine sense of hope that some kind of turning point can be reached. Duberman points out that millennials and other youth are far more comfortable with erotic and gender fluidity than people of my generation, for example, which means that the flames of the radical sex liberation struggled waged by the GLF are still simmering in the background.
Left unmentioned—and still criminalized—are those multitudes whose sexual lives do not match up with middle-class notions of morality, who do not (unlike the supporters of the Human Rights Campaign) regard matrimony, the child-rearing couple, monogamy, and the picket fence as the signposts not only of contented bliss but of mental health.
In other words, the status of a wide range of sexual behaviors that do not fit the approved license that Lawrence v. Texas handed out to “consenting adults in private” remains, in essence, unprotected—outside the law. And this is not theoretical. In some states the number of inmates incarcerated for “sexual offences” is as high as 30 percent.
Will a sufficient number of outsiders prove gallant enough to run the gauntlet, to stay steadfastly in place when the dragon spits the full force of its fire in our direction?
I wonder to what extent Duberman has been overshadowed by Larry Kramer, for example? Well, better late than never, I suppose. I had no idea what to expect when I started reading Has The Gay Movement Failed? Well, I couldn’t put it down, ended up highlighting huge swathes of text, peering through the copious notes to ferret out the seemingly endless number of reference works Duberman alludes to, and quoting bits-and-pieces to my friends, who must have wondered alarmingly if I myself had transformed into some kind of gay-rights activist overnight.
So the tentpole argument goes like this: modern gay society is like an onion, stratified, or with many layers. On top you have the white middle-class mainstream gays, followed by African American gays, Hispanic gays, blue-collar workers, and then right at the bottom you get trans people and other transgressive deviants who not only suffer the greatest oppression and discrimination currently, but also pose the biggest threat to the white middle-class mainstream agenda. Which is assimilation, not transformation.
This can be seen in the campaign for gay marriage, which Duberman argues not only seeks to co-opt the gay community into propping up a faltering heteronormative institution, but which also strives to neutralise or erase our fundamental difference. We have no problem if you’re gay, straight society is saying, as long as you don’t act queer.
However, the African Americans, Hispanics, blue-collar workers, trans people and others actually don’t give two fucks about the right to marry or join the armed forces. The overriding issues in their daily lives are depressingly familiar: Unemployment, poverty, access to medical care, proper education for their children, etc. What has happened, Duberman points out, is that the white middle-class mainstream gay movement is more interested in media-friendly ‘causes’ rather than social justice, which is grubby in-the-trenches kind of activism that the white gay middle class has essentially abandoned.
It never used to be this way, with the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) concerned about equality across the board, including broader societal issues such as racism and sexism. Gay marriage is essentially a conservative, non-threatening olive branch that straight society is prepared to offer the gay community.
But it ignores the many underlying problems faced by the minority strata in the gay community (which is not nearly as homogenised as Will & Grace would have us believe.) The New Yorker succinctly summarises Duberman’s main tenet: “The axiom that homosexuality is immutable has shut the door on a conversation about sexual fluidity, variation, and possibility.”
Duberman’s answer to this problem is the following:
Ideally, we would need the straight left (including feminism) and the gay left to combine forces. We would need straight male lefties to understand that the destruction of economic inequality—itself a goal nearly as inconceivable as it is desirable—will not alone make gladsome every hearth and home, that to complete the trinity and find congenial work and caring connection, a settled sense of safety and satisfaction, we must first endure what can be no less than a searing confrontation with the spectral myths of American benevolence.
Given how Duberman excoriates modern gay politics, I am surprised at the question mark in the title. Maybe the publisher thought no one would buy the book if it was a declarative statement instead. Or maybe the gay white middle class would be too upset at this seeming attack on their dominant position of privilege and political intent.
But I think the question mark points to a genuine sense of hope that some kind of turning point can be reached. Duberman points out that millennials and other youth are far more comfortable with erotic and gender fluidity than people of my generation, for example, which means that the flames of the radical sex liberation struggled waged by the GLF are still simmering in the background.
Left unmentioned—and still criminalized—are those multitudes whose sexual lives do not match up with middle-class notions of morality, who do not (unlike the supporters of the Human Rights Campaign) regard matrimony, the child-rearing couple, monogamy, and the picket fence as the signposts not only of contented bliss but of mental health.
In other words, the status of a wide range of sexual behaviors that do not fit the approved license that Lawrence v. Texas handed out to “consenting adults in private” remains, in essence, unprotected—outside the law. And this is not theoretical. In some states the number of inmates incarcerated for “sexual offences” is as high as 30 percent.
Will a sufficient number of outsiders prove gallant enough to run the gauntlet, to stay steadfastly in place when the dragon spits the full force of its fire in our direction?
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