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Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left
LGBT activism is often imagined as a self-contained struggle, inspired by but set apart from other social movements. Lavender and Red recounts a far different a history of queer radicals who understood their sexual liberation as intertwined with solidarity against imperialism, war, and racism. This politics was born in the late 1960s but survived well past Stonewall, propelling a gay and lesbian left that flourished through the end of the Cold War. The gay and lesbian left found its center in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place where sexual self-determination and revolutionary internationalism converged. Across the 1970s, its activists embraced socialist and women of color feminism and crafted queer opposition to militarism and the New Right. In the Reagan years, they challenged U.S. intervention in Central America, collaborated with their peers in Nicaragua, and mentored the first direct action against AIDS. Bringing together archival research, oral histories, and vibrant images, Emily K. Hobson rediscovers the radical queer past for a generation of activists today.
336 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2016
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September 29, 2019
So, the first thing I need to say is that this book is actually only 199 pages, not 336. There are 300+ pages, but the last 100 or so pages are notes [this book is one of my pet peeves because it doesn't include footnotes in-text, which I am 100% for; rather, it has them all in the back] and indexes. Thats just my nitpicking, though.
This book is astounding. I wasn't sure what to think when I picked it up; it had the same name as Leslie Feinberg's series for Workers World Party, so i was a little confused. But it carries the continuous element of historical materialism throughout it, which is a major bonus.
This book also challenged me in terms of what I knew about LGBTQ history. Coincidentally [or perhaps not], Hobson in the epilogue talks about an essay by Douglas Crimp in which he perpetuates the romanticism of Stonewall and then ignores the 1970s, jumping straight into ACT UP from 1987 onwards. Similarly, I was also taught this history and believed it for an embarrassingly long time: 1969 to 1973 was a revolutionary period for gay activists, then 1973 to 1987 was just stagnant. Thankfully I was wrong. So wrong. The bulk of the six chapters is dedicated to transnational solidarity between gay and lesbian organizers and Chilean resistance to Pinochet and the rise of the Sandanistas, both of which occurred in the 1970s.
The beginning of the book highlights the rise of The New Left, which i have major issues with [groups like SDS, the weather underground, etc. that probably meant well but whose adventurism ultimately made things more difficult for nationally oppressed groups], and the TNL's resistance to gay activism due to old bourgeois notions that "homosexuality was bourgeois", something most 20th century communists are guilty of, and how gay activists made the connection between homophobia and anti-imperialism, winning support of actual Marxist-Leninist groups like the Black Panther Party [and Workers World Party, though not mentioned here] and catapulting us into a massive solidarity movement in support of Vietnam, Allende's Chile, and the Sandanistas -- queer liberation and anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist action have a long, long history we can't afford to ignore.
The second section discusses the rise of lesbian feminism and the militancy that arose in the early stages of that movement. In the early days of gay and lesbian activism, lesbian feminism advocated strongly for self-defense, prison abolition, Black liberation, and advocated for an end to sexual violence. These women, who obviously faced much more repression than even gay men, laid more on the line in terms of solidarity [being members in the Symbionese Liberation Army, for example] and still within leftist spaces, had to carve out a space for women, but even in that, still dealt with a plethora of racism and anti-Blackness that resulted in more women of color-led caucuses engaging in action and anti-militarism.
The next few sections are the ones that fascinated me the most: the 1970s. During this time, much heavier and more disciplined links were established between gay and lesbian groups and anti-colonial organizing; groups such as Third World Gay Caucus, a group entirely of gay men of color, formed; LAGAI [Lesbians and Gays Against Intervention] formed, Gays in Solidarity with the Chilean Resistance formed [and later on, Gay People for the Nicaraguan Revolution], etc. These groups were anti-imperialist and fought in solidarity with the Global South who were fighting u.s. backed coups and neo-colonialism in their own nations. Education on gay & anti-imperialist solidarity increased rapidly at this point; despite this, errors were made in how most of the membership of these groups were still largely white, a testament to the issue of disconnect between white radical intellectuals and the Black and Brown working class especially. Nonetheless, these groups were militant and marched, disrupted, and formed transnational bonds, perhaps the strongest or among the strongest in the last 50 years. This culminated with many delegations of gay and lesbian leftist organizers going to Nicaragua throughout the 1970s and 1980s to strengthen ties with Nicaraguan freedom fighters -- of course, a critical error made by the Sandanista government was its lack of support for gay and lesbian issues, which certainly didnt help it from falling apart to neo-liberalism in more recent years.
Finally the last section is dedicated to unlearning what we know about the AIDS epidemic and learning what the truth was. ACT UP was a phenomenonal, revolutionary group, but by 1987, over 15,000 people had died from AIDS and ACT UP was not the first to bring attention to this -- as early as 1983, gay and lesbian activists, many with AIDS, were organizing in our own communities, trying to do damage control over a plague that didnt yet have a name. Of course, what happened during the worst years was that the focus on single-issues [raised mostly by white middle class gays] superseded the multi-issues raised by working class, mostly Black and Brown gays and trans people. We know how this played out. It discusses in depth what led to the demise of the original ACT UP and how the last days of ACT UP were the early days of neoliberalism and homonationalism in the LGBTQ community that we see today.
What I find very interesting about this book is that despite its earlier writings of TNL forming as an anti-communist movement [despite many of them supporting Cuba, China, Chile, Vietnam, etc.], Hobson admits that one of the main reasons because queer militancy collapsing [diminishing anti-imperialist struggle, etc.] was the result of the fall of the Soviet Union. It really speaks to the influence the Soviet Union had on international anti-capitalist organizing, even as it gradually slipped into revisionism post-1953.
One sad note about this book is the realization [and the book says it too] that many of the militant anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist gay and lesbian organizers, were lost to AIDS. it really sinks in the more that you read just how much the LGBTQ liberation movement lost. Truly.
Overall, an amazing book. What is fucked up is how the author [who is not Black] directly quotes a mindless anti-Black gay activist in the 1960s who used the n word and says it outright. On the first page. Not cool at all. But besides this, an amazing book. A must read.
This book is astounding. I wasn't sure what to think when I picked it up; it had the same name as Leslie Feinberg's series for Workers World Party, so i was a little confused. But it carries the continuous element of historical materialism throughout it, which is a major bonus.
This book also challenged me in terms of what I knew about LGBTQ history. Coincidentally [or perhaps not], Hobson in the epilogue talks about an essay by Douglas Crimp in which he perpetuates the romanticism of Stonewall and then ignores the 1970s, jumping straight into ACT UP from 1987 onwards. Similarly, I was also taught this history and believed it for an embarrassingly long time: 1969 to 1973 was a revolutionary period for gay activists, then 1973 to 1987 was just stagnant. Thankfully I was wrong. So wrong. The bulk of the six chapters is dedicated to transnational solidarity between gay and lesbian organizers and Chilean resistance to Pinochet and the rise of the Sandanistas, both of which occurred in the 1970s.
The beginning of the book highlights the rise of The New Left, which i have major issues with [groups like SDS, the weather underground, etc. that probably meant well but whose adventurism ultimately made things more difficult for nationally oppressed groups], and the TNL's resistance to gay activism due to old bourgeois notions that "homosexuality was bourgeois", something most 20th century communists are guilty of, and how gay activists made the connection between homophobia and anti-imperialism, winning support of actual Marxist-Leninist groups like the Black Panther Party [and Workers World Party, though not mentioned here] and catapulting us into a massive solidarity movement in support of Vietnam, Allende's Chile, and the Sandanistas -- queer liberation and anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist action have a long, long history we can't afford to ignore.
The second section discusses the rise of lesbian feminism and the militancy that arose in the early stages of that movement. In the early days of gay and lesbian activism, lesbian feminism advocated strongly for self-defense, prison abolition, Black liberation, and advocated for an end to sexual violence. These women, who obviously faced much more repression than even gay men, laid more on the line in terms of solidarity [being members in the Symbionese Liberation Army, for example] and still within leftist spaces, had to carve out a space for women, but even in that, still dealt with a plethora of racism and anti-Blackness that resulted in more women of color-led caucuses engaging in action and anti-militarism.
The next few sections are the ones that fascinated me the most: the 1970s. During this time, much heavier and more disciplined links were established between gay and lesbian groups and anti-colonial organizing; groups such as Third World Gay Caucus, a group entirely of gay men of color, formed; LAGAI [Lesbians and Gays Against Intervention] formed, Gays in Solidarity with the Chilean Resistance formed [and later on, Gay People for the Nicaraguan Revolution], etc. These groups were anti-imperialist and fought in solidarity with the Global South who were fighting u.s. backed coups and neo-colonialism in their own nations. Education on gay & anti-imperialist solidarity increased rapidly at this point; despite this, errors were made in how most of the membership of these groups were still largely white, a testament to the issue of disconnect between white radical intellectuals and the Black and Brown working class especially. Nonetheless, these groups were militant and marched, disrupted, and formed transnational bonds, perhaps the strongest or among the strongest in the last 50 years. This culminated with many delegations of gay and lesbian leftist organizers going to Nicaragua throughout the 1970s and 1980s to strengthen ties with Nicaraguan freedom fighters -- of course, a critical error made by the Sandanista government was its lack of support for gay and lesbian issues, which certainly didnt help it from falling apart to neo-liberalism in more recent years.
Finally the last section is dedicated to unlearning what we know about the AIDS epidemic and learning what the truth was. ACT UP was a phenomenonal, revolutionary group, but by 1987, over 15,000 people had died from AIDS and ACT UP was not the first to bring attention to this -- as early as 1983, gay and lesbian activists, many with AIDS, were organizing in our own communities, trying to do damage control over a plague that didnt yet have a name. Of course, what happened during the worst years was that the focus on single-issues [raised mostly by white middle class gays] superseded the multi-issues raised by working class, mostly Black and Brown gays and trans people. We know how this played out. It discusses in depth what led to the demise of the original ACT UP and how the last days of ACT UP were the early days of neoliberalism and homonationalism in the LGBTQ community that we see today.
What I find very interesting about this book is that despite its earlier writings of TNL forming as an anti-communist movement [despite many of them supporting Cuba, China, Chile, Vietnam, etc.], Hobson admits that one of the main reasons because queer militancy collapsing [diminishing anti-imperialist struggle, etc.] was the result of the fall of the Soviet Union. It really speaks to the influence the Soviet Union had on international anti-capitalist organizing, even as it gradually slipped into revisionism post-1953.
One sad note about this book is the realization [and the book says it too] that many of the militant anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist gay and lesbian organizers, were lost to AIDS. it really sinks in the more that you read just how much the LGBTQ liberation movement lost. Truly.
Overall, an amazing book. What is fucked up is how the author [who is not Black] directly quotes a mindless anti-Black gay activist in the 1960s who used the n word and says it outright. On the first page. Not cool at all. But besides this, an amazing book. A must read.
June 17, 2024
Hobson writes into history these multi-ethnic, queer movements were interested in not only their localized movements but also stood in solidarity with international movements like the Sandinista Revolution and other 3rd world fights for liberation. We can see that happening now with “No Pride,” “Queers for Palestine,” and other orgs. It was a necessity to stand in solidarity with internationalism, anti-racism, and, other marginalized groups. It was not a distraction, not out of the social context, and not something to be condensed. Decisively leftist in its tendency, “linking gay liberation to socialist, feminist, anti-racism, and internationalist change and arguing that only radical unity would win sexual [and gendered] freedom.”
One of my favorite examples mentioned is how the radical lesbians expansion into collective self-defense helped propel and separate feminism in the 1970s from the bourgeois girlboss feminism movements. Distinctly aligning lesbian and feminist movements to the Black Panthers, NAARPR, and others while trying to destroy the racial boundaries of lesbian feminist identity that was assumed to be only that of white women.
Having learned about the “Gay nationalism” effort to colonize Alpine county, it reminds me of the split of the black belt thesis. Many of the gay liberationists countered this settler project by saying it was reproducing the “gay ghetto” essentially establishing isolation and exploitation rather than transforming society. We can similar gay separatist agendas come up frequently online now. Black and Gay liberation cannot be solved with isolation and replicating the same forms of oppression, colonization elsewhere, it can only be solved through anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist solidarity amongst each other.
Hobson highlights these movements whitewashed from history. These queer liberationists fought not to be assimilated into society, military, etc. but rather to overturn the heteopatriarchial, capitalist society that harms us all. Queer activism has been revised to be liberal and a fight for inclusion, assimilation, against “don’t ask don’t tell, and a whitewash (and overemphasized version) of Stonewall. Hobson revokes that history and reveals the true nature of Queer leftism in this country.
One of my favorite examples mentioned is how the radical lesbians expansion into collective self-defense helped propel and separate feminism in the 1970s from the bourgeois girlboss feminism movements. Distinctly aligning lesbian and feminist movements to the Black Panthers, NAARPR, and others while trying to destroy the racial boundaries of lesbian feminist identity that was assumed to be only that of white women.
Having learned about the “Gay nationalism” effort to colonize Alpine county, it reminds me of the split of the black belt thesis. Many of the gay liberationists countered this settler project by saying it was reproducing the “gay ghetto” essentially establishing isolation and exploitation rather than transforming society. We can similar gay separatist agendas come up frequently online now. Black and Gay liberation cannot be solved with isolation and replicating the same forms of oppression, colonization elsewhere, it can only be solved through anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist solidarity amongst each other.
Hobson highlights these movements whitewashed from history. These queer liberationists fought not to be assimilated into society, military, etc. but rather to overturn the heteopatriarchial, capitalist society that harms us all. Queer activism has been revised to be liberal and a fight for inclusion, assimilation, against “don’t ask don’t tell, and a whitewash (and overemphasized version) of Stonewall. Hobson revokes that history and reveals the true nature of Queer leftism in this country.
June 28, 2017
Hobson argued that the rise of the Gay and Lesbian Left pushes against the frame that gay issues are only domestic issues, as Gay and Lesbian leftists have always had an international solidarity focus, stemming back to its rise in the New Left with solidarity with the Black Panther Party and the Vietnam War opposition. Early on, gay and lesbian activists linked liberation with the alliance building of domestic and international solidarity (thus lavender of sexual liberation and red of international socialism.) They rejected the isolation of separatism and the limits of liberalism. By the middle of the 1970s, women of color feminism were built with gay white activists’ anti-imperialism, in opposition to discriminatory laws like Proposition 6 (which would have banned gay and lesbians from working in public schools, and US interventions in Latin America. By the 1980s, with the rise of the AIDS crisis, the Gay and Lesbian Left worked to oppose wars in Central America through international solidarity work and to pushing to the recognizing AIDS as a pandemic when the Reagan Administration refused.
Key Themes and Concepts:
- only later became the GLB, then LGBT, and finally Queer terms were used. Hobson uses terms as they would have been used at the time.
-Hobson challenges the account of Stonewall exceptionalism, instead showing a general militancy, linked with inspiration of Black Power, in the late 60s. She also illustrates it was not a simple flare up and dispersal, but a continuing bridge to ACTUP.
-Gay and Lesbian groups explicitly linked their liberation with building alliances both domestically and internationally.
-The Bay Area became a center of much of this activism, though it was more white than the population of the cities.
-Gay writers and radicals had always been involved with the Communist Party USA, but were gradually shunned as Stalin cracked down on homosexuality in the Soviet Union. The fall of the CPUSA and rise of the New Left helped open new avenues for gay liberation.
Key Themes and Concepts:
- only later became the GLB, then LGBT, and finally Queer terms were used. Hobson uses terms as they would have been used at the time.
-Hobson challenges the account of Stonewall exceptionalism, instead showing a general militancy, linked with inspiration of Black Power, in the late 60s. She also illustrates it was not a simple flare up and dispersal, but a continuing bridge to ACTUP.
-Gay and Lesbian groups explicitly linked their liberation with building alliances both domestically and internationally.
-The Bay Area became a center of much of this activism, though it was more white than the population of the cities.
-Gay writers and radicals had always been involved with the Communist Party USA, but were gradually shunned as Stalin cracked down on homosexuality in the Soviet Union. The fall of the CPUSA and rise of the New Left helped open new avenues for gay liberation.
November 15, 2017
Very good history. Not very accessibly written - it reads like someones dissertation. I wish it was written more like a popular history and less like an extremely dense narrative. Slightly inconsistent with some subjects containing a large amount of depth while others felt skimmed. Overall a good summation of L/G activism on the Left in San Francisco in the 60's and 70's. Not very much mention of Trans people or politics - when this was a very important city for early trans activists. As someone who wasn't there it's hard to assess. The last chapter on AIDS activism was one of the strongest. The chapter on L/G Nicaraguans was also good.
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March 24, 2017Really enjoyed Emily Hobson's super smart "Lavender and Red" about West Coast queers in the American Left during the Central American solidarity days of the 1980's. A well told, and deeply researched history of how queers organized in support of freedom movements. Lots of old friends described, and fun conversations about queers traipsing off to Nicaragua and all the interplay that followed.
Only criticism is that Hobson is too nice to some groups that really were cults, but an important addition to history, progressive history, and the queer past.
Only criticism is that Hobson is too nice to some groups that really were cults, but an important addition to history, progressive history, and the queer past.
August 18, 2023
A must-read for anyone wanting to learn recent queer history, but also for modern activists today! Lavender and Red challenged the idea of "Stonewall exceptionalism" and highlighted the overlooked and constant role of the gay and lesbian left throughout the past couple of decades. These radical queer activists understood that the struggle of gay liberation is intertwined with the fight against imperialism, capitalism, racism, sexism, and state-sanctioned violence and only through solidarity with other movements can united goals be achieved. The fight for liberation was met with challenges from internal and external forces and I appreciated the frankness with which the author dealt with the internal divisions, specifically regarding race and ethnicity. On a personal note, this book did take me a while to get through because I spent so long really dissecting the information and annotating which definitely helped my understanding. So much of it I intend to take with me and I even got a little emotional at the epilogue and where we go from here. So read this and then go out into the world with the knowledge you gained and do something with it!
May 19, 2021
I read this book for class and learned a lot from it. At times it was quite dense and difficult to fully understand, but I really appreciate Hobson's writing and attention to detail.
September 8, 2025
"A gay landlord is still a landlord"!
October 26, 2022
An extremely thorough guide to an often-overlooked aspect of queer history, which a lot of people's conception of is limited to landmarks like Stonewall and AIDS actions. I'm so proud of our broader history of radical politics, and while as is the case for most academic texts this isn't exactly a pageturner, if you're a nerd like me you'll get a lot out of it. I should say, though, this is very thorough and critical when it's warranted, so it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Parts of this are very hard to read, especially if you're invested in radical politics. But I think it's so important to have a connection with our history and to understand what's possible and what we're up against.
October 18, 2016
A really exciting history of the gay and lesbian left that, in an important act of historical recovery, emphasizes the role that these movements played in transnational solidarity organizing and impressively charts the politics, limits, and legacies of that organizing and what it means for contemporary struggles.
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