Concise History of Texas Book

This is a remarkable work of oral history, especially in its early sections, which powerfully capture the tensions in the early queer movement — the constant, and often bitter, back and forth between assimilationist and radical forces. Later, and especially in the section of this book added for the 2002 edition, it becomes clear that Marcus’ vision of queer history is deeply assimilationist. He views lesbian and gay people entering straight power structures as the future of the movement. Radical voices entirely drop out.

This is disappointing, and it’s even more disappointing that the book excludes trans and bisexual voices, even as some late ‘90s interviewees learn to pay lip service. (There’s one interview each with a person whose gender is complex and a man who has had relationships with both men and women; both are presented in the book as gay men, and trans representation is otherwise limited to early activists explaining why they excluded gender nonconforming people from their work.)

To be fair, the book is called Making Gay History. It signals clearly enough that it’s going to be an LG work, not LGBTQ. Indeed, it feels like something of a miracle that lesbians are represented so well. I still found it very informative and valuable, but as a bi and trans person, it felt like it had vanishingly little to do with my life — which is strange, because these are my people and my history too.