The other side of silence
Based on hundreds of personal interviews and archival sources, with close attention to portrayals of gay life in literature, theater, and film, the book begins with the entrapment of gay sailors in Newport, Rhode Island, following World War I. Loughery traces the impact of homosexuality on the century's turbulent times: Jazz Age America, the Great Depression, World War II, the McCarthy era, and the present day, when many thousands of Americans have turned the AIDS catastrophe into a moral example of caring for others. Though John Loughery's narrative bears witness to persecution, it turns aside stereotypes about the isolation and loneliness of victims to reveal gay men as accomplished participants in some of the century's most momentous dramas. Vivid portraits abound: Alain Locke, godfather of the Harlem Renaissance; Henry Gerber, founder of ill-fated gay-rights groups in the 192Os; Harry Hay, 195Os visionary; moral-majority foe Bob Kunst; Harvey Milk; Perry Watkins; Larry Kramer; Michael Callen; and many other little-known activists.