A review by broughtyoubooks
When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan

5.0

Ryan doesn't fall into the trap of just saying 'but they weren't gay back then'. We are given a better outline of why our modern terminology isn't sufficient to explain the complexities of queer life (in Brooklyn) during the years that are written about. When Brooklyn Was Queer also looks at queer identities - particularly gay identities, but also instances of trans identities and how these were blurred by concepts of inversion and the like - through military and naval life and their interactions with class and geography, the queer writer/poet/artists and entertainers of the periods, and the various medical approaches, both empathetic and bigoted, that furthered good and bad concepts of queerness. All of these are incorporated into a timeline, broken up into chapters bordered by major events in the world, and introducing a new view of Brooklyn's queer lives.