A review by megstro
A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski

1.0

It’s pretty rare that I one-star a book. I was so excited for this book and the series of which it’s a part. Queer history is American history and this is a story that needs to be told. But this book is so woefully inadequate that I just feel angry. This would be a decent book if it were titled A White Gay History of the United States. I say decent because the author seemed to really struggle to decide whether he wanted to talk about queer people or black people (but not, I should mention, queer black peoples); this results in large sections that are seemingly random digressions into racial relations.

A short list of terms that do not appear in this book:
asexual, intersex, transgender, bisexual

Trans people are, instead (horrifyingly, anachronistically) called transvestites. The examples on which the author focuses are those of women cross dressing as men for purposes of war. Even when discussing bisexual peoples’ same gender relationships, bisexuality isn’t even implied; instead, and far worse, the implication is made that they were straight people who incidentally had sex with the same gender. I don’t think I’ve ever been so disgusted in my life to read this piping hot take from someone who is a noted scholar of LGBT studies at an Ivy League school. The B and T parts aren’t just there for sandwich ingredients.