Abstract
Has the Gay Movement Failed? is an engaging and thought-provoking read about questions that have occupied gay movements since Stonewall. Martin Duberman blends historical, sociological, and personal insights to ultimately question and trouble increasing emphasis on equality and inclusion as opposed to a “hell-raising” (p. xviii) coalition of progressives fighting for liberation. At its core, Has the Gay Movement Failed? is a history of the last half century of the gay movement that acknowledges the progress that has been made but problematizes the exclusion and ignorance of more radical goals. The book is organized into four chapters and begins with a history of the early gay movement in chapter 1. In chapter 2, Duberman contrasts the early gay movement’s radical agenda with what morphed into exclusive emphasis on the right to marry and serve in the armed forces before addressing in chapter 3 debates between mainstream organizations and contemporary radical groups. Finally, Duberman concludes in chapter 4 questioning the possibility of a progressive coalition among the straight left and the radical LGBTQ+ left. Although pessimistic at times, Duberman remains hopeful and calls for an alliance with those we may not love but who “share with us a common enemy” (p. 207).
In chapter 1, “Storming the Citadel,” Duberman provides a historic overview of the early gay and lesbian movement, highlighting tensions between different groups themselves and between more mainstream organizations and groups of the time. For example, the author provides an overview of early tensions and internal debates among The Gay Liberation Front (GLF), including those pertaining to sexism and racism within GLF, and lesbian feminists, who often felt ignored by both the women’s and gay movements, struggles for membership in a collective. Duberman explores GLF’s debates about supporting other struggles, in particular the Black Panthers, and how such debates splintered the GLF—more moderate GLF men broke away to form the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), a group explicitly dedicated to “the homosexual cause” (p. 27). GLF, on the other hand, would ultimately set aside homophobia and sexism within the Black Panthers and foregrounded the Panthers’ fight for liberation. Overall, in this chapter Duberman introduces the radical politics of the GLF and their rejection of the politics of respectability and desire for normality that characterized the pre-Stonewall homophile movement, though Duberman takes some issue with that characterization.
Chapter 2, “Love, Work, Sex,” traces the historical emergence of what would be the mainstream gay movement’s emphasis on ensuring marriage rights for gay and lesbian people. Duberman questions how, within 40 years, GLF’s radical agenda morphed into a movement that stresses the importance of the right to marriage. He argues that the fight for marriage rights was not a “plot” (p. 62) by a few privileged gay people but emerged in a post-1980s AIDS epidemic climate in which proclamations for or about “promiscuous” (p. 65) sex were removed from mainstream discussions. The author critiques early advocates of marriage rights for failing to recognize the pitfalls among heterosexual unions (such as a 45 percent divorce rate) and for failing to advocate that the various privileges that attend state-sanctioned marriage be available to all as universal rights. Duberman makes the case that undergirding marriage rights efforts is a politic of normativity that does little to address the struggles of working-class gay people. This emergent new movement contrasts from the early days of the GLF, a movement that wanted “more for the country as a whole, not just gay people” (p. 91), advocated for a cultural sexual and gender revolution, attempted to raise consciousness about imperialism and racism, and challenged the equation of heterosexuality with normalcy. The agenda that replaced that of GLF, Duberman argues, was much more limited and not exactly visionary.
In chapter 3, “Equality or Liberation?,” Duberman reviews issues ranging from debates about equality or liberation to the difficulties LGBTQ+ folks face even in a time of “gay pride” (p. 114) to fluidity of sexual and gender identities to research about a supposed causality of sexual orientation and gender nonconformity. The author begins the chapter with a critique of assimilation into mainstream normality, arguing that even though rights are necessary, they may not be enough. Forms of prejudice still remain strong, and Duberman doubts that the battle for full equality can address remaining strands of bias and the humanitarian concerns that face working-class LGBTQ+ people—the very concerns that are not exactly at the top of the mainstream movement’s agenda. At this juncture, the author introduces the grassroots organizations that he considers to be the “new queer liberation movement” (p. 107). Here Duberman reviews timely issues pertinent to the transformative goals of radical groups, including tackling mass incarceration and prison abolition. The author then diverges to critique ubiquitous notions of gay pride, asserting that to exclusively stress the positive aspects of LGBTQ+ life and identity is to fall into a trap of believing and reinforcing the notion that “we’re just as ‘normal’ as everybody else” (p. 115), a trap that Duberman argues keeps us from holding accountable the very structures responsible for our pain. Duberman concludes the chapter with a discussion of sexual and gender fluidity and a review of science’s search for an understanding of the causality of sexuality and gender nonconformity. While the author seems to agree that causality is not of much importance to individual LGBTQ+ people, Duberman asserts that it is important to understand the positions scientific inquiry takes because those very positions influence those of others. Overall, while this chapter reviews a variety of issues that at the surface may seem disjointed, the author returns to tensions between equality or liberation with the specific examples mentioned earlier.
In chapter 4, “Whose Left?,” Duberman again contrasts the mainstream national gay organizations with younger radical gay local organizations and, importantly, highlights tensions between the straight left and LGBTQ+ radicals. Duberman begins this chapter with a harsh critique of the well-recognized and conservative Human Rights Campaign (HRC), asserting that its human rights efforts are entirely shortsighted and aimed at self-protection and normalcy for gay and lesbian Americans. The author contrasts the aforementioned efforts with the survival-focused agenda of local gay organizations that, unlike the single-issue politics characteristic of the HRC, are attuned to intersecting inequalities that affect LGBTQ+ youth (including homelessness, high rates of job discrimination, and low rates of health insurance, to name a few). Duberman holds promise that focus on these issues has the potential to unite the straight left and young gay radicals but contends that the current straight left agenda is not quite broad enough to encompass the “sex-gender revolution” (p. 167) spearheaded by the LGBTQ+ left and that the LGBTQ+ movement and its members are conveniently forgotten as potential allies in the straight left’s progressive coalition in fighting against racism and inequality. Throughout the chapter, Duberman questions civil rights protections and the HRC’s emphasis on “having access to the same sources of power as comparably situated straight people” (p. 194) in relation to calls for the radical redistribution of power that creates inequality in the first place. Duberman concludes this chapter and the book with calls for an alliance of progressive forces. It is only together, he says, that we can challenge “the country’s oligarchic structure, its patriarchal authority, and its primitively fundamentalist moral values” (p. 207).
In all, Has the Gay Movement Failed? is a historic reckoning of the last half century of the gay movement and a critique of a politic of normativity that has sidelined more radical and transformative goals. Though Duberman is a renowned historian, select chapters of this book are appropriate for various undergraduate and graduate sociology courses. For undergraduate courses, select chapters would be an accessible and appropriate supplement. Chapter 2, “Love, Work, Sex,” would complement a discussion on political opportunity in an introductory social movements course. In addition, chapter 4, “Whose Left?,” would add a social movements element to any general social inequality course.
As a whole, this book would enhance a graduate Queer Studies seminar and would pair well with other texts, including Michael Warner’s (1999) The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life and Suzanna Walter’s (2014) The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions Are Sabotaging Gay Equality. In particular, chapter 3, “Equality or Liberation?,” would also pair well with Jane Ward’s (2015) Not Gay: Sex between Straight White Men. The book would also serve as an exciting and detailed addition to any LGBTQ+ or Queer History undergraduate course offering. For an undergraduate Queer History course, I suggest pairing this book with Peretz’s (2018) TRAILS classroom activity “Feminist History in Waves.” While the goal of this class activity is to create a historical timeline of women’s history, I believe it is well suited to be adapted to create a basic historiography of the gay movement. Students would be asked to read Duberman’s book and note important events, debates, and junctures within the gay movement. In class, students would collectively fill in a timeline on the board. Peretz has found this activity useful for helping students understand the process of social change over time, and I believe it will also help students better understand and visualize the thorough history that Duberman shares here. Has the Gay Movement Failed? is an engaging account of the last half century of the gay movement that, because of its energizing discussion of tensions between focus on normalcy or emphasis on radical transformation, would be a timely and invaluable addition to the classroom.