The Early Homosexual Rights Movement

by John Lauritsen, David Thorstad

A Revised Edition of the seminal work on the history of the Gay movement; included discussion of science, the role of women, differences in individual countries, Socialism, and Oscar Wilde. Also includes notes on five pioneers, including Walt Whitman, Sir Richard Burton, and Edward Carpenter.

Genres: History, LGBT, Nonfiction, Politics

121 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Beginning in 1966, John Lauritsen established a career as a market research executive and analyst. But he also has been a gay activist and scholar since the earliest days of the gay liberation movement.

In the summer of 1969 he joined the Gay Liberation Front, and edited Come Out!, the first publication of the post-Stonewall gay movement. He joined the Gay Activists Alliance in 1974, and served as Delegate-At-Large. And in the same year he joined the Gay Academic Union, of which he later became a National Director. He was a member of the Columbia University Seminar on Homosexualities.

With the advent of the gay health crisis in the early 80s, Lauritsen became an investigative journalist and a leading “AIDS critic” (one who rejects the official AIDS model, including the HIV-Causes-AIDS hypothesis). His main outlet was the New York Native, which from 1985 to 1996 published over 50 of his articles. These articles have been described by the leading science and medical correspondent of the Sunday Times (London) as “the most trenchantly informative, irreverent, funny and tragic writing of the Aids years” (Neville Hodgkinson, Aids: The Failure of Contemporary Science, London 1996).

In addition to the Native, John Lauritsen’s articles have appeared in publications as diverse as Gay Books Bulletin, Gay Times (London), Civil Liberties Review, The Freethinker (London), Journal of Homosexuality, Christopher Street, Gay & Lesbian Humanist, Gay & Lesbian Review, Bio/Technology, and The Lancet. His writings have been translated into German, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian.

Reviews

[Sky Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and rare book. Seems that it did not receive much interest in it's time.
The politics of the text are excellent using a light Trotskyist analysis of the early LGBT+ movement. Specifically his understanding of the russian revolution and counter revolution of Stalin are excellent albeit embellished at moment.

Double check facts due to its age but excellent read. A logical follow up would be "Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia" by Dan Healy

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A work that is, admittedly, dated, yet still captures a previously unexplored time and place in the study of those who fought, protested, agitated, and risked much to champion sexual identities before World War II. While, again, some of the language and arguments may be seen as dated, the references to historical figures and their works, pamphlets, and speeches provides insight into how arguments for gender and sexual equality have a global history that warrant attention. Worth a read to anyone looking at the history of social organizing for equality.

[María · Rating 3 out of 5]

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